Camp Sleepy Hollow
by Free Dan Phantom
Summary: Another of my Dad's stories. Danny, Sam and Tucker are sent packing to a camp. So? Strange myths and happenings are found along the way. Is the ghost of a decapitated kid from 50 years ago out for revenge against our hero? Probably
1. A Week Without Ghosts

Chapter 1 - A Week Without Ghosts

_I will not get a cat!! _ Vlad Masters (Maternal Instinct)

With a clash of gears and the rattle of thrown pebbles, the tracked assault vehicle -- commonly referred to as the Fenton Family RV -- raced down the gravel drive and through the campground gates leaving Danny Fenton, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley standing beside a pile of camp gear.

"I know this is only for a week," Tucker suggested, "but they seemed awfully glad to get rid of us."

"That's just the way my dad drives," Danny said. He was a medium size kid of fourteen with an unruly shock of dark hair.

"Dude, your mom was at the wheel," Tucker corrected. He was a slightly shorter black youth of fourteen. He tended to wear a red beret, khaki cargo pants, yellow shirt and a Personal Digital Assistant. Most people did not consider a PDA part of their attire; Tucker did. His fingers were already twitching because he had had to leave most of his electronic gear at home.

"Tucker, Tucker, Tucker," Sam said, adjusting a broad brimmed safari hat, with a black band knotted around its brim. Sam -- Samantha on her birth certificate but no where else -- Manson favored black. Her cropped T-shirt was black, her leggings were black, her skirt, a plaid of black and green. Her lipstick -- black. "Let it never be said that parents dump their kids at summer camp," she continued. Like her two friends, she was fourteen.

Tucker tried a little forced laughter, then quit. The three started picking up their luggage. Danny had been looking forward to this week at Camp Sleepy Hollow. He had been here the last couple years but this was the first time he had been able to get Tucker's and Sam's parents let his friends come along with him. The camp was co-ed with a widely varied series of structured activities of an outdoors nature. It was far from the city and far from his parents, whom he loved, but they were sometimes a little stressful.

"So where do we stay? What's our cabin assignments?" Sam asked.

"We're both in Cabin Maple." Danny said. "And you?"

"Cabin Hemlock. It's not just a type of tree but it's a gruesome way to die." Seeing the puzzled look on Danny and Tucker's face Sam explained, "That's how Socrates committed suicide. He drank hemlock tea." The boys continued to look at her blankly. "Socrates, fellas! He was a famous philosopher. Father of the Socratic method? Taught Aristotle?" Sam shook her head. "You guys never heard of Socrates but I bet you know Paulina's favorite perfume..."

"Aqua Passion," they answered in unison.

With the grunt of anger, Sam stomped off down the path from the parking lot towards the cabins.

As it turned out Hemlock and Maple cabins were in the same cluster along with Oak and Sumac. The cabins were arranged in a semi-circle around a small clearing in the dense forest that covered much of Camp Sleepy Hollow. A fire-pit was in the center of the clearing with a stack of firewood under some canvas near-by. A gravel road lead up to the clearing with spaces for two vehicles to park. Except for the Head Ranger and the occasional maintenance vehicle, cars and trucks were banned from the camp grounds. Campers were expected to hike from place to place even if those places were as much as a mile away.

Danny, Sam and Tucker joined a large group of people clustered around some picnic tables waiting for the counselors to arrive. They found kids from various school around Amity Park but no one else from their school, Casper High. The campers ranged from the age of twelve to seventeen.

"They say this place is haunted," one of the older boys was saying. "Fifty years ago a camper was murdered by a crazed up counselor and his ghost has been roaming the camp ever since seeking revenge."

"He's just pulling our leg," one of the younger boys said.

"No, it's true," another kids replied. "They found his body in the lake but they never found his head."

"Ewww" one of the girls said.

"He hanged himself," another boy said. "Because no girl would go out with him. But that was a long time ago."

"But is there a ghost?" the young boy asked.

"Some say there is and some say not." The older boy said.

"What a bunch of bologna," a girl cried. "That's just a story the counselors are telling to scare us kids."

"That's not true. I heard it from my grandmother, who grow up around here." This was an older girl with long brown braids.

"I heard it from one of the guys working in the stables." said a boy with a high forehead and a very pronounced chin.

" There's no ghosts at this camp," the girl persisted. "If there were, my parents would know. They'd never send me to a camp that was dangerous."

"Right, your parents know all about ghosts,"

"Yes," the girl said defiantly.

"What are they, the Guys in White?"

The girl paused, her mouth open for an angry reply. Her face slowly turned white. "I can neither confirm or deny that," she finished, folded her arms and sat down on the picnic table. She wore white shorts with white knee-high socks and white tennis shoes. A white polo shirt finished the picture. She had long, dark red hair and a pale complexion heavily sprinkled with freckles.

"Guys in White" Danny and Sam sighed.

Apparently they has said this a little louder than intended because the girl heard them. "What do you mean by that?" she demanded.

"Isn't it obvious? Only someone who worked for the Guys in White would refuse to deny that they work there. So when you say you can neither confirm nor deny that your parents work for the GIW it obviously means that they work for the Guys in White." Tucker explained.

"They don't but if they did, what of it?"

"They're government know-it-alls," Danny said. "They spend more time filing paperwork that fighting ghosts. They're... what's the word I'm looking for, Sam?"

"Hey, I'm not getting into this."

"They're morons." Tucker suggested.

"My dad is not a mor ... a Guy in White. Besides it's all rumor that such a government unit even exists. So there Mister... Who are you anyway, you jerk?"

"Danny Fenton."

"Fenton? I've heard that name somewhere? Is Jack Fenton is your father?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"I am so-o-o sorry." the girl said, unable to look Danny in the eye.

"Hey, what does that mean?"

But before he could get an answer the door to one of the cabins swung open and the Camp Ranger and the eight counselors for this cluster filed out. The Head Ranger was talking softly to one of the counselors but in a strong insistent voice that carried around the clearing. "I don't want to hear anymore about this. You got me? This kind of behavior has got to stop or you'll get bounced out of here so fast your head will spin."

Whoever she was talking to answered back much quieter and at length. "Good," she ordered, "see that you do!" She turned then and seeing the campers staring at her, smiled, waved, and called out a hello. "I'll met you all again this evening at the all-Camp campfire, " and strode off down the trail towards her office in the administration building near the parking lot.

Before Danny had more than a chance to wonder what that was all about. One of the counselors started talking.

"Hi. We'll be your counselors for this week. Do what we say and everything will be fine.. Stick to the rules and everything be fine. Don't try to prank us because we'll prank you back twice as hard. Now there are four cabins in this group. We're team Green. Remember that. We're the best team in the camp and if you disappoint, you'll have to answer to me. Got it?"

"Why does that voice sound so familiar?" Danny whispered.

"We all use camp names here. Your counselors are Butterfly, Porcupine, Willow, Sunshine, T. Bear, Shortie, Booger and I'm Dash."

"No!" Danny screamed in a whisper. "This can't be happening to me."

"Yep. It looks like your worst nightmare has been realized." Tucker snorted. Danny looked through the crowd of campers and saw the tall, blond-haired, broad-shouldered football star and school bully, Dash Baxter. He was wearing a green Camp Sleepy Hollow Counselors T-shirt and holding a clip-board.

"Booger," Dash said, pointing to a tall lanky kid also in a green counselor's T-shirt, "and T. Bear", he waved towards a barrel-chested, very hairy boy, "are in charge of Oak Cabin. Butterfly and Willow here," Dash pointed to a short, heavy-set girl with a frizzy mess of brown hair, beside her was a dark-skinned girl with long black hair tied up in a pony-tail, "are in charge of Hemlock Cabin, and Porcupine," this was a slender black women with her hair done up in corn rows, "and Sunshine" This was a large, very buxom blonde, "has Sumac. And Shortie and me are in charge of Maple." Shortie was an extremely tall kid, maybe six foot five inches but incredibly slender.

"Now I'm going to read off your names. As you hear it I want you to group around your counselor. Maple Cabin - Anderson, Bleiler, Fenton? - Fen-tone, is that you. Hah. We'll have a fun time! Hah - Foley, Gribley, Smith..." he continued until all twelve bunkmates have been named, before moving on to the Oak, Hemlock and Sumac cabins. The counselors led the campers to their respective cabins. As Danny was passing Dash Baxter a leg stuck out causing Danny to trip. "Hey Fen-Tone, you got to watch where you're going around here. You don't want to trip and fall into a mud puddle. Hah!"

Danny sitting on his hands and knees gritted his teeth and tensed to attack.

Tucker caught Danny arm and pulled him along.

"Come on, he's not worth the effort."

"Yes he is." Danny gritted.

The cabins had a Spartan, World War Two army barracks quality to them. Beds were iron cots, with a trunk at the foot for personal effects. No paneling covered the insides of the walls or ceiling. Three windows lined the long sides of the cabins. The showers and toilets were in one corner, the counselor's room in the other by the front door.

Danny and Tucker claimed cots next to each other at the far end of the cabin - as far away from Dash as they could get. They were unrolling their sleeping bags when Dash came out of the counselor's private room with a handful of papers. "Listen up!" he called. "I've got copies of the camp rules for everyone. Reveille is at 6, Breakfast 7; lunch at noon and supper is at 6. Lights-out is 10 and anyone caught trying to sneak into the girl's cabin after hours will be expelled from Camp Sleepy Hollow. Any questions?

"What if we sneak into the girl's cabin before lights-out?" a tow-headed boy asked.

"Good One." Dash laughed.

"What if we don't get caught?" Another boy asked. The cabin dissolved into laughter.

"Hey! Hey Listen Up!" Dash called again. "Everybody at camp does one day of kitchen duty and one day of cabin duty. That's stuff like washing dishes and sweeping the floors. I've got the list of everyone's assignments here. Also. If there is any violation of camp regulations you will be punished with extra KP, Got that? So keep your nose clean Fen-Turn or you'll find yourself up to your elbows in dishes for the rest of the week. And if you have any problems, you come to me. Got that?"

"What if my problem is you?" Danny challenged

"See that it isn't!"

Dash handed out the sheets. Danny saw that he was scheduled for KP the next evening. He wondered if Dash had something to so about that, then realized that he was becoming paranoid.

"It's 2:30 now." Dash said. "You have a half hour to unpack and make your beds. At Three we'll form up in the circle outside and go on a hike. This is to familiarize yourself with the camp. Anyone whose bed is not properly made by Three will be on KP tonight. Got that?"

Dash walked back to the counselor's room and closed the door.

Danny finished smoothing out his sleeping bag, pushed the rest of his stuff into the locker and padlocked it. "Looks good to me." Danny said. "I'll met you outside."

"I'm right behind you," Tucker replied.

They were talking to Sam and a couple of the girls from her cabin later when Dash finally came out of the cabin. He looked around until he found Danny. "Hey, Fen-tone" he hollered. "I thought I said to make your bed. It's a mess. You're looking at KP tonight."

"Hey. I made my bed." Danny hollered back. "It was fine when I left."

"Well take a look, because now it isn't"

Danny stormed into the cabin and found his bed lying on its side, mattress, sleeping bag and everything was lying on the floor.

"You got five minutes to fix this, Fen-tone" Dash sneered at him. "The group is heading out and I don't want you to get lost. Hah!" Dash left Danny grinding his teeth

"I am so going to get you for this," Danny grumbled as he set the bed upright and started piling the rest of his stuff on top it.

Camp Sleepy Hollow was several hundred acres of second growth forest. To the west rose a low mountain, Mt. Osceola, with ridges rising along the north and south of the camp, giving it, its hollow. In the center was a large lake of 80-100 acres extent. The lake was man-made by damming up the flow of the small Fox river which came tumbling down Mt. Osceola. On the east side of the lake was a small beach and dock area for canoeing and swimming. A large athletic field spread out in front of the lake, with the camp entrance and administration buildings, including the dining hall near by. To the north were the stables and horse riding trails leading up along the western ridge to a series of small plateaus where some of the weeks activities were held. Along the south side of the lake were four clusters of four cabins each. Each cluster was called a team and given a different color (red, blue, green, and orange). The different teams would compete in camp Olympics on Friday. The rest of the week would be spent on different, separate day long activities - canoeing, horse back riding, hiking and swimming.

The hike that Dash and the other counselors lead their team on wound around the camp from stables to nurses' cabin, dining hall and the athletic field. Along one edge of the field was a large firepit and a mound of earth lines with logs forming a small amphitheater. There would be singalongs and plays given there at night. Danny was rather thankful that acting in any of the plays was not required. The hike ended back at the cabins where everyone was told to wash up and assemble for dinner. From the way Tucker was moaning, dinner couldn't come soon enough.

The dinning hall was a large open building that could seat all 200 campers at the same time. Danny wondered why they would build such a large building when a smaller building with meals served in shifts would have been so much cheaper, then he noticed a curtained off area at the far end of the main room. The curtains weren't fully closed and through the gap Danny could see a raised platform, a dais or small stage. He realized that the dinning hall was an alternative gathering place in case the outdoor amphitheater was rained out.

A twenty foot window in one wall opened into the kitchen. Steam tables and a sneeze guard filled the space. Trays and silverware were stacked up just outside. Pitchers of water were scattered on all the tables. It was open seating so Danny, Tucker and Sam found a table by themselves and sat down. The meal that night was meatloaf with mash potatoes and gravy, with green beans on the side. Danny dutifully gave those to Sam who in turned picked out the sliced boiled egg from her vegetarian salad and handed them to Danny. As an Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian

Sam refused to eat eggs because they were the product of enslaved chickens. Danny merely refused to eat anything healthy.

Tucker was scraping his plate clean and considering going back for seconds before Danny had finished eating his meatloaf. But just as he was making up his mind the cooks started pulling the pans off the steam tables and hauling them away. From the number of groans that went up through the room Tucker wasn't the only one not quite finished with supper.

He contented himself with the slice of apple pie for dessert. "You going to eat that?" he asked Danny when he was finished, pointing to the slice of pie on Danny's tray.

"You can have my crust." Sam offered as she carefully dissected her pie, separating the gooey filling from the thick, flaky crust. "I think it was made with lard."

Tucker stretched over with his pie plate for Sam to fill up.

"Lard?" Danny asked

"You know, pig fat?"

"They put pig fat in pies?"

"Yes!" Sam replied surprised by Danny's confusion. "You love it when it's on bacon."

"But that's bacon. Why would they put bacon in Apple pie?"

"They don't. -- Oh, never mind. Don't you do any cooking at home?"

Later they took their trays over to the return window where a short conveyer belt normally carried them inside to be cleaned and washed. However because of a lack of a KP staff tonight the dishes were stacking up. As they carefully piled their trays on top others they could hear a raspy voiced women in the next room complain. "Look at this garbage. I cook them a nice meal and they don't have the courtesy to eat it. I bet they don't throw away food like this at home!"

"Pleasant woman," Tucker said.

"I can see where KP is not going to be fun," Danny added.

"I was going to explain to the cook the difference between "vegetarian" and "ultra-recyclco-vegetarian" and I think I'll wait till later," Sam said.

Counselors at the doors to the dinning hall directed everyone to the athletic field where they grouped in their Teams, played a little frisbee or soccer or just talked. A couple of the counselors were stacking wood for a bonfire before lighting it. It smoldered for a while until a bored looking older man, obviously part of the small grounds crew, came out and threw a small can of liquid on it. The flames roared up in a whooshing blaze. The groundskeeper seemed indifferent to his near immolation and walked back to where ever he had come from. Danny wasn't sure but he thought he heard the man call out "Opa!" just as he threw the gasolene on the fire.

The fire soon settled down to a crackling blaze but since it was still early evening and mid-summer it wasn't very impressive as camp fires go. The sun was still shining with more warmth than the fire. Along about seven thirty the head ranger came out of her office in the Administration Building and walked down to the fire. The counselors got busy directing people to get seated.

After a moment waiting for everyone to quiet done, the ranger introduced herself. She was Helen Camp, which made her Ranger Camp, the camp ranger. She paused waiting for the kids to laugh. After an awkward silence she went on. She introduced the camp secretary, Mrs. Williams, who would take and give messages from home, and Mrs. James, the camp nurse, who would dispense the daily medications for anyone on daily medications, treat cuts, rashes or send kids to the hospital for serious injuries. "I trust there will be no serious injuries this year!" Ranger Camp added drily.

The head ranger was a short, thick woman, with a square, no-nonsense face. She talked in a voice used to speaking to large crowds and giving commands. She wore khaki shorts and a short-sleeved uniform shirt. A patch with the camp's logo was sewn on the shoulder, a cell-phone tucked in the shirt pocket and a whistle on a lanyard hung around her neck. A wide-brimmed, flat ranger's hat perched on her head. With her legs spread and hands folded behind her back she looked more like a drill sergeant than the head of a summer camp.

Ranger Camp went over the rules everyone was to obey while at camp. When she came to the part about no hazing or harassment of others she seemed to be looking at someone in the crowd but with the sun at her back it was hard to tell who she might have been looking at.

She went on to outlines the weeks activities and the "Olympics" they would have at the end of the week. "Our lawyers tell me I'm not allowed to call it an 'Olympics' any more because that's a trademark of the US Olympics Committee and can only be used by permission. Blah. blah. blah. So I'm required to call it a Field Competition, but you know what I really mean!"

After a few more comments Range Camp lead the kids in singing the camp song, which noone seemed to know, lead them in a couple cheers then sent them back to their cabins for the night.

Dusk had fallen and a small fire had been build in the clearing between the four cabins. The forty-some kids and their eight counselors were scattered around various picnic tables or logs laid down for benches. A few kids were running around the clearing chasing fireflies. The insects were swarming in the cooling air and their flickering lights a rare attraction for the mostly city-raised kids. Another group was gathered around the fire toasting marshmallows. Graham crackers and chocolate bars were laid out on one table for S'mores. Danny, Sam and Tucker were sitting on one of the more remote logs watching the others. Sam was debating whether to tell Danny about the glob of marshmallow stuck to his cheek or wait for him to notice himself. Tucker was antsy from not having his PDA in his hand.

"Hey, Danny," Tucker said, "Look over there. Isn't that the girl who said there were no ghosts at this camp?"

"The Girl in White" Sam quipped.

"Yeah, I guess so." Danny said.

"She looking right at you."

"So?"

"I bet if you went over and asked, she'd go out on a date with you."

"I didn't come out here to find a date." Danny protested.

"Are you mad?" Tucker exclaimed. "What other reason is there for camp?"

"Learning woodcraft." Danny suggested.

"Personal responsibility," Sam injected.

"Having fun," Danny continued.

"Learning go to go for a week without machines." Sam looked at Tucker to see if he's get her dig.

"No way. It's all about meeting new people. People who might want to go out on a date with you."

"Tuck, you are taking this dating thing w-a-y too seriously." Danny said. Tucker had, in fact, spent most of the previous school year asking one cheerleader or Pep Squad member after another out only to be rejected every time. It had become something of an issue with him.

"This from the guy whose tongue hangs out every time Paulina walks by," Sam snapped. "The only reason you haven't asked every girl in school out on a date is because you're fixated on Paulina, and the only reason you haven't been shot down by every girl in school is because you're too chicken to ask her out."

"No, I don't intend to be de-pants by the entire senior football squad, that's why I haven't asked her out," Danny retorted.

A girl nibbling on her S'more suddenly spoke up. "I saw a ghost once."

"No way," someone said. "What was it like? Did it try to kill you?"

"Most ghosts aren't like that," the Girl in White said. "They're just the spirits of dead people trying to figure out why they're still on Earth. Uh, I mean, that's what I read somewhere. It's not like I have any personal knowledge of ghosts or anything."

"I bet," Sam scoffed quietly to her friends. "Could she be any more obvious?" Tucker added. "Or a worse liar?" Danny finished.

"I've heard some of your lies, Danny," Sam said. "I wouldn't be too confident."

"What I want to know is: if most ghost are harmless, why do we run into all the ones that want to kill us?" Tucker asked.

Danny got up, "Who wants more S'mores?"

"I don't know. They don't taste as good was the ones you made last month." Sam said.

"That's because Danny used Dark Dan's flaming hair for the fire." Tucker reminded her.

"Ewww!" Sam exclaimed. "I was eating food cooked over pure evil?"

"I wouldn't call it 'pure evil'," Tucker reflected. "Oh wait. Yes it was. Who knew evil could taste so good."

"Danny, I think I've lost my appetite," Sam instructed, "but if you get a S'More for Tucker here, make sure it's extra burnt since he likes evil so much."

"Hey!" Tucker protested.

Danny walked over to the supplies and grabbed up a couple of sticks, loaded them with marshmallows and squatted next to the glowing bed of embers. As he slowly rotated the sticks he listened as the girl who had seen a ghost continued her story.

She had been babysitting the past winter when someone had knocked on the front door. When she opened the door, "...there was this older women standing there, looking kind of all anxious and excited. She was wearing a light rain coat even though it was snowing and one long, black opera glove."

"What's that?" someone interrupted.

"A glove you wear to an opera, you moron."

"What's an opera?" a wit questioned.

"Shut up! Let her tell her story," he was told.

"An opera glove is one of those gloves made or silk or really fine leather that runs all the way up to the elbow. They're very classy, I got some once at a resale shop, but no one wears them any more. That's why I noticed it. That and because she was wearing only the one glove."

"Maybe she thought she was Michael Jackson." This time Danny recognized the voice as Dash's. The tall, broad-shoulder athlete was smirking at his own wit but others were glaring at him.

The girl continued as if Dash wasn't there at all. "The lady said she was raising money for a charity; that she had to help the little children. Well, I didn't want to give her any money because I thought she was crazy but I feared if I didn't give her something she would never go away. So I dug through my purse until I found a dollar's worth of change and gave it to her. She thanked me and left. And that was the last I thought about it until the Glaves – that's the people were I was sitting for – came home.

"They asked if I had a quiet night and I thought about the strange women who had come begging for money. When I mentioned that she wore only the one opera glove, Mr Glaves got a weird look in his eyes. 'That sounds like Mrs. Peterson, she went around wearing one glove for years, but she died a few years ago.'

" 'She was a little crazy, too,' Mrs. Glaves said. Apparently she went a little nuts after her husband had died or maybe she was a little nuts before, because she had been a real tightwad when he was alive but afterwards she was always collecting for charities, and wearing that one glove. Mrs Glave said that she said she had awoke one night and felt her husband's hand on her hand and knew he wanted her to change her ways. She always wore a glove on the hand he touched.

"The Glaves were just wrong about her being dead," Dash sneered.

"No, that's the weird thing. That's why I know I met a ghost. Mr. Glave was getting ready to drive me home. We went out the front door and some snow had falling earlier in the evening and there weren't any footprints in the snow. I know I saw her, I gave her some money and yet," she dropped her voice to a whisper, " no one had come to the door."

"Cool," some of the kids murmured. Danny recalled that the only ghost that ever came to his door had been Ember McLain, who had come to kidnap his parents.

"I have a ghost story," a boy said.

"Does it involve some dumb dweeb in black pajamas" Dash teased.

The boy looked at the counselor with confusion. He shook his head. He was stocky, rather over-weight and wearing a T-shirts a couple sizes too small. It showed a penguin sitting on top of a computer. Danny wondered what that meant. Perhaps Tucker would know? Dash's crack about a dweeb in black pajamas he recognized as himself, Danny Phantom.

"It was two years ago. My family was visiting my grandfather who has a dairy farm. My grandparents had moved into a small double-wide trailer because the old farm house that had been there for over a hundred years needed too many repairs to make it liveable. But it was summer and all we kids needed was a roof over our head so they let us camp-out inside there. I had a cot by myself in a room on the second floor. There was nothing in the room, just a door leading up to the attic which was all dust and cobwebby. I took one look up there and decided there was nothing up there could be worth looking at. There was also a door leading into a small back room. It was weird. To get to this one small bedroom you had to walk through two other bedrooms. Who would want to live like that?"

"Get on with the ghost," Dash called.

"Well, I was sleeping in this room when around 1 or 2 in the morning I woke up. I don't know why. I tried to sit up in bed but I couldn't move. I couldn't sit up. I couldn't roll to the left or the right. I couldn't lift a hand. I was totally petrified. Suddenly I realized that someone was on the stairs coming down from the attic. I don't know why but I was sure as I'm standing here that someone -- or some thing was on the stairs. I wanted to jump out of bed and start running but I couldn't move.

"I lay in bed for I don't know how long. It seemed like hours but I'm guessing it was really only seconds. My heart was pounding like I was going to have a stroke..."

"I'm sure that's a familiar experience for you."

"Dash, shut up!" It looked like one of the other counselors had said that.

The boy faltered in his story, seemingly unsure whether to continue or not.

"Then what happened?" one of the kids asked.

"Well, when it seemed like I couldn't bear another moment of this, the door to the attic opened and an old man in bib overalls walked out, crossed the room and entered the little backroom and closed the door. The moment the door closed my paralysis ended. I sat up in bed gasping for breath and dripping with sweat. After I'd recovered my breath I called out 'Who's there?' but no one answered. I got out of bed and tiptoed over to the back room. I listened at the door but couldn't hear any noise. So I knocked on the door quietly, and when no one answered knocked again much louder. When no one answered I tried opening the door. There was no one inside. There was no way for the man to have gotten out because there was no doors or windows inside that room. And I had been watching the door all that time. So he had to have been in there, but he wasn't. He had to have been a ghost."

"Sounds more like just a nightmare to me," Dash sneered. "People often dream that they're paralyzed. And you just thought you saw a man walk through your bedroom."

"Geez, Dash, don't be such a wet blanket," the other boy's counselor said. "We're here to have fun and get acquainted. Let the kids tell their stories."

"But they're all lame."

"Oh, who died and made you Simon Crowell?" That was one of the girl's counselors. "If you don't have a ghost story to share, just be quiet."

"Aww," Dash sulked. "All right. I've got a ghost story. And it's real because it actually happened to me. It all started one day when his father shrunk me to the size of a flea!" Danny realized that Dash was pointing at him.

"What?"

"Yeah. Your old man zapped me with some stupid invention of his and shrunk me down to the size of a pygmy."

"I knew that Jack Fenton was irresponsible, but I didn't know that he was that irresponsible," said the red-haired girl in the white clothes.

"My dad is not irresponsible!" Danny shouted.

"Like your dad's not the laughingstock of all of Amity Park," Dash sneered.

"He is not a laughingstock!"

"Dash," the other boys counselor interrupted, "Does this story have a ghost or is it just about you running off at the mouth?"

"Oh there was a ghost all right. The weirdest ghost I ever heard tell of, not counting that Danny Phantom moron who nearly got me killed while I was shrunk."

"So what happened?"

"It was earlier this spring. Coach had assigned me to tutor Fenton here in track and field for the President's Fitness Test later that month. I was going over to his place -- it's a weird apartment building that looks like a Flying Saucer crashed into it -- to get start his training when I see this goofball in black PJs fighting with this other weirdo, who's like all Rambo'ed up with guns and grenades and rockets. And he had a jetpack to fly through the air. I could tell he was a ghost because his face was all white and stuff. I'm just hoping they'll move on before some innocent bystander named Dash Baxter gets hurts when this goof -- his father sticks his head out of an upper story window shouts something like "Hot Dang! I get to try out my new toy!" and shoots the three of us with this weird contraption he'd invented.

"For a moment everything sort of whirled around and kind of got blurry. When that stopped I saw that I has shrunk to the size of a midget. The grass in Fenton's backyard towered over me like a forest..."

"A midget is a person three or four feet tall. Just how small were you: as small as a flea, a midget, a pygmy?" Make up your mind."

"One inch," Danny muttered reflectively. "He was only one inch tall."

"How would you know, Fentoni? I don't remember seeing you there," Dash snarled.

Danny gulped and realized he had let on too much. He had been there, but as Danny Phantom, something Dash nor any one else must ever be allowed to know. He thought quickly. "You've told this story so many times at school that I feel like I was there." He said. "In any case it's obvious that your height in relation to the grass would have to be about one inch. You know," Danny added. "This isn't much of a ghost story. "It's just a couple of dudes fighting."

"But they were ghosts!"

"Still doesn't make them, you know, scary."

"What do you know, Fenton?" Dash sneered. "Like I was saying, the three of us had been shrunk down to the size of bugs. I knew I had to get into the Fenton's lab to reverse the shrink ray so I grabbed the little twerp and started doing a sprint through the grass..."

Danny tried not to laugh. Actually he had been the one who grabbed Dash and tried to fly across the lawn and into the house only to find that the "Fenton Crammer" had effected his powers somehow, causing them to short out. The more he had tried to use them the less effective they were -- and the more he had reverted to his human form -- and had to hide that fact from Dash.

Skulker, to give the ghost-hunting ghost its name, had followed them all the way across the lawn, lobbing bullets and grenades at them all the while. His ghost technology had not been affected by the "cramming" like Danny's ghost powers had. Danny had tried to phased through the backdoor but that power had also shorted out so they ducked into a mouse hole. There they had surprised the hole's inhabitant. Dash was calling it a rat but Danny remembered it was more like a very fat mouse. And while Dash was claiming to have thought of using a bag of potato chips, the size of an RV in their diminutive size, to dump on Skulker as the ghost was flying up to the open upstairs window, that had been Danny's idea. Mostly he recalled the panic he's felt as he tried to hide from the school bully his gradual reversion to his human form, and prevent Dash's realization that Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom.

While Skulker had been digging himself out from under a mountain of kettle-fried, extra-spicy potato chips Danny and Dash had climbed a string of cheese from a forgot wedge of pizza from the floor to the table top where the "Fenton Cramer" had been left and finally reverse the miniaturization effect. He'd also passed the President's Fitness Challenge later that month -- barely, but a pass was a pass -- not from Dash's tutelage but from the realization that he should not always count on the super-charged vitality of his ghostly form.

Dash had wrapped up his story and was waiting for his usual accolades. At Casper High School people always liked his stories. Here, after a brief silence another camper began his ghost story.

"A friend of mine was driving from Travis City down to Benton Harbor -- that's in Michigan along the coast of Lake Michigan. He was driving through a scraggly forest when he sees this guy walking along the road. It was late at night and there wasn't another car in sight so he stops and asked if the guy needs a lift. He doesn't say anything but gets into the car. They're driving along for a while when my friend asks where's he going and the guy kind of mumbles 'just to the next town.' Didn't want to talk about anything. My friend was getting kinda weirded out by that.

"Suddenly they're coming up to a railroad track. It has crossing lights with the crossing arms and everything but they were up, the lights weren't flashing or anything so my friend wasn't slowing down. But the hitchhiker got all excited and demanded that my friend stop, said that the lights weren't working and a train was coming. My friend was going 'What train?' but the hitchhiker kept insisting that the crossing gates were broken, a train was coming and they had to stop.

"So he stops, pulls up to the tracks to look both ways before crossing and just as he gets there an Amtrak train roars past going a hundred miles and hour. If they hadn't stop they would have been crushed like a tin can! My friend was freaking and he turns to this hitchhiker to ask 'How did you know?' only the guy isn't there. He had never been there. My friend had had to move a couple cans of pop off the seat for the guy to get in. The cans were back on the seat, exactly where they had been before he had stopped to pick up the hitchhiker.

"He's so freaked out that when he sees a motel a little ways down the road he pulled in, figured he was hallucinating and needed sleep. As he's signing in he tells the motel owner about non-working railroad crossing gates. The owner gives him a weird look and tells him there hasn't been an Amtrak train on that track in over ten years. And he says, 'But I saw it!' and he tells the owner the whole story about the hitchhiker, the warning and everything. And the owner faints. Keels right over without a word.

"My friend goes around the counter and helps him into a chair and knocks on the apartment door -- because the owner lived at the motel -- and his wife comes out and he tells her what happened. And she gets all pale. 'Our son,' she says, 'was hitchhiking home when he was killed at that train crossing. The gates were broken and he never saw the train coming. We waited up all night for him to get home and he never came!'

"My friend got back in his car and drove away and kept driving 'til the sun came up. To this day he will not drive on that road again."

Dash was about to say something snide when a girl siting on a table on the edge of the darkness suddenly said on a quavering voice, "I think I just saw a ghost?"

"What? Where?" Dash asked.

"It was over there?" she spoke softly with a rising inflection that made every statement sound like a question.

"There's no one there. What makes you think it was a ghost?" Dash demanded.

"Because it didn't have a head?" the girl replied. "It was just standing there? But it didn't have a head? I guess it's left?"

"I don't see no ghost," Dash said. "Anybody else see this 'Ghost'?"

"Danny?"

With a start Danny realized that Sam and Tucker were standing beside him. "Oh, the S'mores." All he saw were crumbs in his hands. Vaguely he remembered nibbling on them while Dash told his story. "I'm sorry, I'll make some more."

"No, about the ghost. Was it really here?"

"I'm not a ghost detector. How would I know?"

"Usually you have that blue breath thing as a clue," Sam whispered.

"Well, nothing happened. But I don't think that means a ghost wasn't here. I kind of think that only happens when I'm in danger."

Some of the boys had fished out flashlights from their pockets and were spreading out looking for intruders in case one of the other teams at the camp had decided to prank them. The counselors were pushing the rest of the kids back to their cabins. Danny, Sam and Tucker helped pack up the rest of the graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate bars while Booger poured water over the fire-pit and stirred the ashes. By the time Dash came back with the search party the area outside the cabins was deserted.

Danny brushed his teeth and changed into his pajamas. He found Tucker already in his sleeping bag playing with his PDA. Since electronic devices were banned from camp grounds he had to do this under the covers.

"Geez, Tuck you look like a pervert doing that," Danny said. "Wait till lights out."

"If I don't delete spam every day my email account gets blocked up."

"Find a service with better spam-blocking. Any real messages on that thing? Are your parents missing you yet?"

"You know darn well it was my parents' idea to send me to camp with you. If I didn't trust your parents to come up us up on Saturday I'd be worried about being left here all summer.

"Couldn't be the worst thing in the world. No older sister telling you to straighten up and fly right, no mom bugging you about cleaning up your room, or handing off a list a mile long of chores to do. A summer here wouldn't be so bad."

"It would be a summer with Dash..."

"Yeah."

"I could email your parents to pick us up tomorrow. I could claim we have whooping cough or tree fungus or something."

Danny wiggled into his sleeping bag and lay back staring at the cobwebs growing amid the rafter of the cabin. "Nah. If I can survive nine months of Dash in school I can survive one week of him at camp. I don't want to give up my one ghost-free week this year."

"What if that girl was right?"

"Which girl? The one that said there were no ghosts here? I'm counting on it."

"The other one. The one who thought she saw a ghost here tonight."

"I don't care. If it leaves me alone I intent to leave it alone. This is Danny Fenton's week, not you-who-know."

"But still..."

"No ghosts, Tuck. There will be no ghosts this week! Good night, OK." Danny rolled over. Moments later Dash came into the room and turned off the cabin lights.

Night settled over Camp Sleep Hollow. The half-Moon had already begun its descent for the night. The cicada chirping in the distant mingled with the "rickets" of bull frogs. A cool breeze occasionally blew through the cabins of the sleeping campers. Quietly a ghostly wail became to sound. Not the sort of ghostly wail that knocked down buildings, but a rising and falling OO-oo-OO-oo-OO-oo-OO-oo. People rustled on their beds, not quite waking to the sound. Suddenly there was a thump! Followed by a loud bang, and several more thumps. A heavy iron cot could be heard slowing dragging itself across the floor. A light flashed on in Dash's room, visible under the door. "Who's there?" he called. The door to his room jerked open and he poked his head out, swinging the flash around the cabin. Satisfied that everyone was asleep in their beds, he closed the door and shoved his bed back to where it should be.

There was quiet for maybe five minutes when the wailing started again. OO-oo-OO-oo-OO-oo-OO-oo. By now people were starting to wake up .Tucker looked over to Danny's bed and saw a reassuring lump there. Danny, he knew could be a heavy sleeper.

Soon the thumps started again. Followed by the rustle of papers being tossed in the air. Quiet reigned for a moment then Dash could be distinctly heard saying, "Gimme back my blanket!" Following by the sound of tearing cloth. More quiet. The boys in the cabin were by now riveted by the unseen war going on in Dash's cabin. Suddenly there was a crash followed by the thud of a body falling to the ground. "All right, that's it!" Dash shouted. He yanked the door to his room open and walked into a falling bucket of water. He sputtered for a moment, then threw the lights to the cabin on and yelled, "Fenton!"

A groggy Danny Fenton stirred on his cot, sat up blinking bleary eyes at the sudden light. "What's going on?" he asked.

"You know darn well what's going on."

"Why are you wet? Is it raining?"

"Hey, man, why are you ragging on him," one of the other boys asked. He's been in his bed this whole time. We all have been. I don't know what's been going on in your room but none of us were doing it."

"Yeah," some of the others chimed in.

By this time Shortie has wandered out of the counselor's room. He was wearing a pair of sweat pants and a pair of glasses he hadn't been wearing during the day. "Come on, Dash. Your cot just collapsed, that all. There's no reason to make a three-ring circus out of it. We'll get it fixed in the morning. Let the kids sleep."

"I'm wet. Someone threw a bucket of water on me.

"You knocked over a glass of water," Shortie said exasperatedly.

"Hey, Tuck, what has been going on," Danny whispered.

"Like you don't know."

"I don't. Honestly."

"Oh, I get'cha. You've been here a-l-l along sleeping. I've got your back, and your alibi."

"Tuck, I'm serious. I wasn't doing anything. What happened to Dash?"

"Ri-i-i-ght. Sleeping."

"Tuck--"

While they had been whispering Dash had pulled on his boots and, flashlight in hand, had prowled around outright the cabin. Shortie flipped the lights off, told everyone to go back to slow and ambled back into the counselor's room. Dash came back after a couple minutes, slammed into their room and came out a few minutes later in dry clothes, dragging his cot with him. He pushed it into a small space in the corner. There was quiet rustling for a few minutes as the nervous boys tried to figure out what had happened. Then slowly quiet took over the cabin until dawn, and the morning songbirds, woke them all up.


	2. First Rule of Canoeing Don't Stand up

_Never say 'what could possibly go wrong'. That just begging karma to kick you in the butt - Free Dan Phantom_

There are two types of people in the world -- day people and night people. As a result mornings meals tend to be more somber than others, simply because half the diners aren't fully awake. Nonetheless news of Dash's midnight visitation spread rapidly through the dinning hall raising the usual din by several decibels.

Heads were constantly turning to check out the table where Dash and some of his fellow counselors were eating. At first, Dash attempted to just ignore them but soon he started looking for someone to blame. Apparently he chose his co-counselor, Shortie, to blame. Quiet quips shot Shortie's way must have soon moved on to more pointed jabs because Shortie abruptly stood up, gathered up his tray and moved to another table.

Tucker kept nudging Danny and muttering "good one" each time Dash poked his head up to glare at the people staring at him. Danny kept denying any involvement, to which Sam would merely say, "r-i-g-h-t."

Danny actually was concerned because if Shortie hadn't played a prank on Dash, who had? As much as he would have liked to have pranked Dash he was honestly asleep at the time. Had he been sleep-haunting, if there was such a thing? Only he had never sleep-walked before, and it didn't seem likely that he would now. Was it the camp ghost that that girl claimed to have seen last night? Danny was inclined to not believe a ghost had been there because, frankly, his ghost sense did go off anything a ghost was around, not just when he was in danger. And besides why would it make such a specific attack on Dash and not anyone else? An anti-bully ghost? Danny wonder, then remembered that he'd met one already, Poindexter, but he was safely locked away in the Ghost Zone.

Danny remembered a discussion he'd had with his sister, Jazz, a while back, about how the ghosts they met all seemed to have an attribute or some special power. Like Ember McClain was a music ghost and Technus was a ghost of machines and technology. Maybe this camp ghost was a mischief ghost like Youngblood only dedicated to camps? Jazz thought about stuff like that. She was close to coming up with a theology for ghosts which Danny thought was a little creepy. Like next she's form a People for the Ethical Treatment of Ectoplasmic Manifestations -- "PET'EM" No, that was going too far...

After breakfast Danny, Tucker and Sam went back to their cabins to change for their day's activity -- canoeing. When they emerged a few minutes later they found Sam already waiting, sitting on a picnic table outside the girl's cabins swinging her legs which ended in a pair of flop-flops (black naturally).

Sam was wearing a trim one piece black bathing suit and a large straw hat. Someone (her parents?) had glued a large cheerful daisy to the front. Someone (Sam?) had colored the daisy black. She'd foregone the large black Goth cloak she normally wore as a cover-up at the community swimming pool in Amity Park. Smears of white on her arms and legs hinted that she had slathered up with sun block.

Tucker's bathing suit sported a large corporate label down the side of it's nearly full length legs. Danny's trunks were shorter but just as baggy.

Originally the plan was for the four cabins to travel together, because they were 'A Team' but so many people were too eager to start that they ended up traveling in dribs and drabs of two and three people down to the beach. The beach was a short distance past the dinning hall, down a fair steep grade, dropping about twenty feet. There was a wide expanse of fine sand, obviously imported since the beach ended in muddy, loamy ground. A medium size building stood just off the beach near the dinning hall. It had a double-wide roll-up garage door and a pair of regular doors at either end. Through the open roll-up door could be seen a series of high narrow racks where the canoes were stored over-night.

The early arrivals had been dragooned into helping get set-up. The boys were carrying the aluminum canoes from the racks down to the shore where three of the counselors, Shortie, Sunshine and Porcupine were standing knne deep in the water directing where they wanted the canoes laid. The girls were stacking piles of seat cushions and paddles near the start of the pier where Dash was standing. As the last canoe came out of the storage shed the remaining counselors, Booger, Butterfly, Willow and T. Bear emerged, closed the doors and walked out on the pier. The counselors in the water started pulling canoes off the sand and floated two towards the counselors on the pier, who grabbed them and pulled them against the pier, ready for the first campers to climb in.

The lake glittered in the early morning sun. Already its heat could be felt. A light, cool breeze coming off the water made for a few small ripples. From where the campers stood on the shore they could easily see the land rising on three sides around them, trees grew thickly right down to the shore. The shadow they offered was a long ways off. Somewhat to the south west corner of the lake was a flagpole with a white banner hanging limply. This marked the mouth of the Fox River (really more of a creek) which flowed down from the ridge to the west. The land around the flagpole was low and marshy. When the camp had opened that had been a small inlet but over time had silted up.

"Listen up people," Dash called with the authority of a veteran football team captain when he saw that all the supplies had been brought out. "Before we give out canoe assignments we've got to go over a few instructions, so listen closely."

"I thought we were going to pick our partners," Danny muttered.

"So who was going to be your partner? Tuck or me?" Sam teased.

Danny blushed when he realized that picking one or the other would hurt the other.

Dash was saying, "When I read off your names come up here and pick up one paddle and one seat cushion. Now I know you are all excellent swimmers -- hah -- but the law requires each and every one of you use a life jacket or seat cushion. When you get back this afternoon you are to turn in one paddle and one seat cushion to the storage shed. If you fail to turn in both items you will be charged for the missing item. Got that?

"Also, if you fail to return with a canoe you will be charged for that!"

"Secondly, no rough-housing. No ramming another canoe, no tipping another canoe over. No water fights while in canoes. If you are caught doing any of those things you will be put on KP.

"Yeah, I know that takes all the fun out of canoeing but there will be open swimming at the reservoir at the picnic area where you can cause all the trouble you want. Also, the Camp Ranger, Ranger Camp sent along a note that since the Camp does not allow use of electronic devices during camp, Camp Sleepy Hollow is not responsible for any electronic devices which may be damaged or lost during today's activities. I might add as a personal note that sounds travels a long ways over water. So do not turn on those radios which you ware not supposed to have because if the Camp Ranger, Ranger Camp..."

"Enough with the joke!" someone shouted.

"If she should hear your radio coming over the lake, you will be in trouble!"

"Now the lake isn't deep but it is over your head in most places. We will be paddling over to the entrance of Fox Creek. You can see it from here, it's where the white flag is at. We will paddle up the creek for about a half mile where you will come to a rock dam. There is a landing area just below the dam on your right side. Pull your canoes up on the bank securely. Now the riverbed there will be a bit mucky, which is why you were instructed to wear shoes. Be careful walking through the muck so you don't lose your shoes. There are also a few large boulders in the creek; so be careful of them. We don't want you damaging the canoes.

"Since this is your first day at camp we want to make sure everyone has a chance to meet new people. So when we drew up the list of partners we made sure everyone partners with someone from a different cabin. I want you to get to know them. I want you to get to know everyone in our four cabins because at the end of the week there's the Camp Olympics where the four cabin clusters compete as teams against each other. And I want to see the Green Team (he plucked at the green T-shirt he and the other counselors were wearing) win this time.

"OK?

"Good. Now your canoe assignments. Once you get in your canoe you can start paddling across the lake.

"Farley-Smythe-Hyde -- what's a matter, could decide on a name? Hah! -- Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde and Fenton, Daniel. Hey, Fen-Turn, front and center!"

"Lucky you," Sam said. "The one person at camp who likes you less than Dash."

"What? Who?"

"Her -- your 'Girl in White'." Sam pointed to the girl who had assured everybody the day before there were no ghosts at the camp. She was walking out onto the pier.

"Fenton, stop daydreaming and get to your canoe." Dash called.

Danny stopped beside Dash and picked up a seat cushion and paddle from the pile there. "Uh, Dash, could I have some other partner?" he asked.

"What's a matter Fenton, don't like girls?"

"No, I don't like her."

"You know her?"

"Only since yesterday, but she doesn't like me either?"

"Is she the one who thinks your old man is nuts?"

"He's not nuts?"

"Says you." Dash laughed. "Tough luck, Fenton. She's your partner for the day. Make the best of it. Or I'll put you on KP."

Danny grabbed up his seat cushion and paddle and started out to the pier. "Like you don't already have me penciled in for that." he muttered as he walked away.

"What did you say, Fenton?"

"Nothing,"

"Smarting back to your counselor: that a KP assignment!

"What a surprise," Danny growled.

"Keep that up and it will be KP everyday" Dash shouted.

The Girl in White, Abigail Farley-Smith-Hyde wasn't wearing white today. Instead she was in a green two piece swim suit that complimented her red hair and accentuated her good looks. The scowl when she saw who her partner was, however, detracted somewhat from the overall effect.

She started to climb into the back of the canoe but the tall lanky counselor with "Booger" on his name tag waved her to the front.

"Hey, why can't I be in back?" she asked.

"The guy in back does all the work," said the other counselor, a heavy-set brunette with a camp name of 'Butterfly,' "Up front you get to just sit and admire the view."

"And watch put for large rocks and submerged branches." Boogie added.

Once the two were safely seated he pushed the canoe away from the pier. Danny and Abigail picked up their paddles and got to work.

The trip across the lake went well though a couple of scrapes as they maneuvered up the creek suggested that Abigail wasn't making much of an effort to watch for submerged rocks. At least she paddled with some regularity and even coordinated left and right sides with Danny so that the canoe mostly went true.

Though they had been the first off the dock they were being passed by just about everybody, mostly pairs of boys who were attacking the water with all the speed and power they could muster.

Abigail -- Danny quickly learned that she did not like being nicknamed "Abby" -- frequently stopped rowing to admire their surroundings. Danny found himself joining in. Though voices did carry far on the lake, they were often thin and muffled since the sounds traveled so far without anything to reflect them back at people. Dragonflies were winging their out from the shore, dratting through the air, occasionally landing on the side of their canoe. Once or twice Danny heard the soft plop of a fish leaping for an insect, but the only sign of their passage he ever saw was a widening ring of ripples. The sun, though, rapidly mounted in the sky, reflecting off the water in blinding glares and a gradually oppressive heat, forcing Danny and his partner to pick up their paddles and row towards the welcoming cool, shady shore.

Danny tried to make small talk with her but she was mostly noncommital. He learned that she came from Falls Church, Virginia which was one of the suburbs surrounding Washington, DC., and was a high school freshman like Danny. She wouldn't say what her father did for a living or why she had come to a camp so far from the nation's capital. After a lull Abigail asked:

"Is your father really as crazy as they say he is?"

"My dad's not crazy?" Danny bit out.

"He does run around in that goofy jumpsuit all the time."

"That doesn't make him crazy. What about those Guys in White only wearing white, that's a bit...ah, strange."

"No, it's not."

"It's not strange to wear only white all the time?"

"No," she repeated. "It's a fashion statement."

"I think someone's in denial."

"What about the way your father is always seeing ghosts?"

"Have you ever been to Amity Park? There are ghosts everywhere."

"Oh, yeah, and there's that ghost boy with the stupid name – Inviso-Bill"

"That's not his name, it's..." Danny decided not to go any further.

"It's what? And how do you get on a first name basis with some creepy ectoplasmic infestation?"

"He, uh..." Danny thought for a moment then remembered Technus' worst habit. "He shouts it out loud a lot. You know, like, 'This is a job for Danny Phantom!' So everybody kind of knows who he is."

"But your dad can't seem to catch him. Not a very good showing for someone who's always going on about ghost hunting and stuff."

Danny didn't like the direction this whole conversation was going.

Fortunately they turned into the creek just then and while the stream's flow was weak, it did require them to constantly paddle to make any headway. They were too busy doing that to argue anymore.

Lucky the landing spot soon came into view. They beached the canoe on a muddy beach and climbed out. A dozen or so canoes were there before them. A half dozen kids were poking around in the water there looking for missing shoes, proving that the ground was every bit as mucky as Dash had warned. Counselors Willow and Porcupine were sitting on the tailgate of a pick-up truck they had driven around the lake to the site. In the bed of the truck were a large pile of box lunches. Danny and Abigail checked in with the counselor and picked up their box lunches. Abigail immediately disappeared somewhere.

Looking around he saw Sam Manson sitting on a rock eating her lunch. He approached but noticed that she was deep in conversation with her canoe partner, a woman a year or so older and decked out in black like Sam. But she also had a half-dozen rings in their left ear and a loop through her eyebrow. A winking glint hinted at something stuck in her nose. Danny couldn't remember when he last saw Sam so animated. He decided he didn't want to interrupt.

He moved back to the center of the clearing and happen to see Tucker Foley picking up his lunch. Danny started to join his best friend when he saw him turn to talk to the girl behind him. Outside of Porcupine, she may have been the only other black at the camp, short, slender, with hair in dreadlocks. Tuck must have told her a joke because she started laughing. They walked off together looking for some place to sit. Tucker usually had such rotten luck getting a girl to talk to him so Danny didn't want to interfere there either. But he felt incredible alone without his friends to talk to. He was about to look for Abigail for someone to talk to when he saw his breathe come out in a blue haze. It was his ghost sense telling him that a ghost was near by. Danny crammed the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and went looking for a private place where he could 'Go ghost!'

Danny Phantom was flying over the tops of the trees looking for the ghost his senses had warned him about but so far hadn't seen anything suspicious. His ghost sense only gave him vague alarms, it couldn't point him towards the malevolent specter. He could still feel the chill from the ghost so he knew it hadn't gone away. Danny dropped down to the floor of the forest and started walking around. The chill seemed slightly stronger to the north so he headed that way, up a small hill. He crested the hill and descended into a small bowl. The trees seems especially thick here and shaded out the sun. After a moment Danny realized that the little valley he was in was almost too dark to see he way about.

He looked up at the sky but couldn't see anything through the overlapping branches. Still it seemed darker than even a heavy forest should be here. He noticed his breath coming out of his mouth in little puffs. Not his ghost sense, actual fog. He shivered from the sudden crushing cold. He could feel someone or something slowly creeping up on him and spun around. But no one was there. He spun another in another direction and then in a third but no where could he see who or what it was that seemed so close behind him.

He felt the hackles on the back of his neck rise. He didn't even know what hackles were before this.

Danny backed against a large tree. "Show yourself!" he shouted. "Stop hiding in the shadows. Come out and let's get this over with!"

Dread swirled around Danny, choking off his thoughts. Never in any of his fights, not even against the most powerful foes had he ever felt this sort of fear, of terror. And yet there was nothing to see!

Suddenly he felt vulnerable where he stood. Danny took off running. The trees seemed to reach down to him, snagging at him with their limbs. Roots leaped up to trip his feet. His heart was pounding in his chest a mile a minute. Suddenly his feet went out from under him. he rolled on the twig scattered ground, winding up at the foot on an old oak. He backed up against the oak, looking for his enemy. "Why don't you show yourself!" he screamed, then saw in the overwhelming darkness two small points of light, red glowing embers. Eyes from which the most incredible sense of evil poured.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Danny shouted. The eyes only continued to stare.

"Fight me, why don't you? Fight!" and Danny send a blast of ectoplasmic energy at the eyes. The blast disappeared into the darkness. But did the eyes seem to shudder for a moment?

Danny fired blast after blast into the mounting darkness. He screamed and cursed at the invisible foe. Finally exhausted he dropping to his knees and fell over in a dead faint.

"Fenton?"

A girl's voice.

Danny opened his eyes. The sun shone brightly overhead. The air was warm with the mid-day heat and fragrant with the loam decay of the leaf litter ground. In the distance he could hear a pair of Blue Jays squawking. And as he blinked his eyes the face of a red-headed girl in a green bathing suit loomed over him.

"Abi?"

"Abigail." she corrected him. "What are you doing out here?"

"I -- uh..." He couldn't think. He couldn't remember. It was all like a dream. Some horrid dream he couldn't wake up from, except that he had and now this girl was asking him to make sense.

Danny sat up and looked around. He saw with a rush of relief that he was dressed in his bathing suit and not Danny Phantom's jumpsuit. He saw the scrapes and scuff marks on his knees. "I must have tripped and hit my head on a rock." he temporized.

Abigail Farley Smythe-Hyde roughly pulled his head down and felt around his skull as if she knew what she was doing. "Don't see any lumps. I think you'll be OK. But what are you doing out here so far from the picnic grounds?"

"I could ask you the same thing. Looking for me isn't a likely answer, though."

"I thought I hear something."

"Right. And I was just going for a walk."

There was an awkward silence.

"You didn't happen to see anything that resembled a ghost did you?" Abigail finally asked.

"A ghost you were tracking with that Fenton Finder?" Danny had finally noticed what little gadget Abigail held concealed in her hand.

"Like all things Fenton, it doesn't work. First it said there was a ghost and now it doesn't. It must be broken."

"That's a Mark 1 Mini, they were very unreliable," Danny offered. Actually he was glad it was broken because they had a tendency to point to him even when he wasn't in ghost form. "Excuse me for asking, but where did you have that concealed. Your bathing suit doesn't leave a lot to the imagination."

"Hey! Don't get fresh!"

"I'm not, I'm just saying... I didn't mean it the way it sounded." Danny blushed furiously.

"I have a tote. If you weren't so busy ogling me all the time you would have noticed it. I don't go anywhere without. It's got my make-up, bug spray and sun-block. Do you have any idea how easily I burn in the sun?"

"I wasn't ogling. I -- you burn? That's from the red hair, right?

"What of it? Like you care."

"I don't...just curious. I'd heard but don't know that it was true? Is it bad?"

"SPF 50, the same level Dracula uses, and I still have to get out of the sun after a while. What do you think?"

Danny slowly worked his way to his feet. He was, surprisingly, neither weak nor dizzy after his terrible ordeal. "Let's get back to the picnic before they send out a search party."

"Can you walk alright or do you need some help?"

"I'm fine." Danny said. He was surprised by her concern. "What else do you have in that tote? A Fenton Fisher, Jack O'Nine-tails?"

"A can of mace, to keep off horny Fenton boys. A Fenton Fisher? What stupid thing is that?"

"Hey, stop ragging on my dad. I don't go on about your father? Cut me some slack."

"OK, Ok. Look -- um -- you didn't see anything weird out here?" she asked.

"No. Why? Did you?"

"I thought I saw ... never mind"

They walked back in silence.

Danny wanted to talk about his experience but Sam and Tucker were still wrapped up with their new friends. Danny envied them that. Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde hardly qualified as a friend. He watched her chatting to one of the male counselors and wondered if he should tell her what really happened out there. As the daughter of a Guy in White she probably knew more about ghosts and hauntings than anyone else at camp. It would be nice being able to talk to someone about ghost stuff, like he did with Tucker and Sam. It would be nice if he didn't have to always hide what he was. The trouble was, she was a ghost-hunter and he was a ghost. Half-ghost. Whatever. The minute he said anything hinting that he had spectral powers he's be in a secret government lab for the rest of his, probably short and painful life.

The trip back started poorly when Abigail insisted that she sit in the back. Once there she often forgot to do the steering like she should and complained when Danny tried to tell her how to do it. Danny's shoulders were aching by the time they got out of the creek. The beach seems a long ways off. Worse there was a stiff breeze coming off the shore that kept pushing them away from the beach. Danny tried to tell Abigail they had to turn into the wind but she just complained that he wasn't paddling hard enough.

"I'm paddling as hard as I can. You're the one who's not trying!" He shouted back to her.

"I am too, trying, but this stupid canoe won't go where it's supposed to."

"That's because we've got to head into the wind -- so it won't blow us sideways."

"But the canoe won't turn."

"Did you try what I told you, to paddle backwards."

"That's stupid."

"It works."

"Well, if you think you can do any better, you steer," she snapped. Suddenly the canoe started rocking violently back and forth.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked. He looked around. He had a brief glance of Abigail, climbing to her feet. "Don't stand up!" He hollered, just as the canoe rolled over, dumping them into the lake.

He surfaced, wiped the water from his eyes and looked around. The canoe was upside down nearby, the paddles floating slowly away. Their towels were missing. Abigail surfaced a moment later, blowing water out of her nose and coughing. He swam over to her and pulled to her to the canoe where she throw an arm over the upturned bottom and coughed some more.

"What the hell happened?" she cursed when she finally caught her breath.

"You stood up"

"What does that supposed to mean?"

"You don't stand up in a canoe. That's how they tip over."

"So its all my fault."

"Yes."

"Screw you." she snapped. Then hollered "Help" a couple times.

"I don't think they can hear us," Danny said.

"What are we going to do? We'll drown out here?"

"We tip the canoe over and get back in."

"How are we going to do that?"

"If you do what I tell you," Danny growled, "it's pretty easy." When he didn't hear any protest, he proceeded to tell her how.

Working together they rolled the canoe over, though it was still half full of water. With her holding on to the rim on one side, Danny rolled over into the canoe, then reached down to pull Abigail in. Together they bailed with their hands until the water was only a coupe inches deep. Abigail was overjoyed to find that her carryall was still stuck under the rear bench where she stuck it. She pulled a ruined compact and lipstick, dumped them back in and fished out the Fenton Finder. She turned it on and immediately it started beeping. "There is a ghost in front of you." the Finder intoned. It was pointing straight at Danny.

It felt like his heart had leap up his throat as he waited for the "Girl in White" to say something. She pointed it across the lake but it still intoned "There is a ghost in front of you." She pointed it the other way and it still beeped. Danny suddenly remembered an experience He, Sam and Tucker had made with the Finder. It could not discriminate direction when it was within six feet of a ghost. The signal was too strong.

"Stupid machine's broke." Abigail muttered and thrust it back into her carryall.

Danny gasped for breath at that, and hoped she hadn't noticed.

"Abi- Abigail. Our paddles are just over there. If we paddle with out hands I think we can reach them." He said by way of distraction.

By the time they retrieved the paddles the wind had laid enough for them to get back to the beach. They pulled the canoe up in the beach and handed in their paddles to the counselors. Abigail slung her carryall over her shoulder and stalked off without another word.

Danny saw Dash Baxter coming down from the storage shed with a shirk on his face. Could his day get any worse?

Danny was sitting down by the lake enjoying the cool breeze coming off the waters after a long evening of KP duty. He envied Sam and Tucker back at the cabins loafing about during free time. Once he got the smell of rancid grease out of his mouth he'd join them.

"Uh, Fenton?" He hadn't heard the crunch of shoes approaching so the sound of her voice caught him by surprise.

"Abi -- uh -- Farley-Smythe-Hyde?" The canoeing had been such a disaster this morning that Danny resented her intruding on his first 'alone time' of the day.

She sat down on the grass beside him then stared out over the lake.

"Nice breeze." She offered.

Danny didn't reply.

"Just get off KP?"

"Uh-huh?" Danny grunted.

"I hate KP. It's so ... military. I get enough of that at home."

"Which you can neither confirm nor deny."

"Yeah, right. You got that."

They were silent for a moment.

"I guess I should apologize for standing up in the canoe this afternoon." Abigail said. "I didn't realize canoes could tip over that easily."

"Haven't you ever been on a boat before?"

"I can never conform nor deny that."

"Oh, cut the crap."

"I was trying to make a joke. I've been on boats before, just not small ones. Not small ones like canoes."

"Ok, ok. If you came down here to apologize, apology accepted. Now leave me alone. I don't think Dash knows I'm down here so I might get an hour of two without his bullying."

Danny laid back and closed his eyes. He waited for the sound of her footsteps leaving. When they didn't he opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Look -- uh -- Fen --uh, Danny, do you think that story the kids were telling -- about the boy who was killed here -- is true?"

"If it were just Dash, I'd say he was jerking our chains." Danny was thinking, "great another ghost to catch -- on my vacation" Out loud he said "You know if there were a serious ghost infestation at this place the Guys in White would shut it down. So unless you see your father unexpectedly, we have nothing to worry about."

"He's not a Guy in...Oh, who am I kidding. Actually I wanted to ask about your father."

"You mean the "Lunatic" Jack Fenton?"

"Does he ever take that jumpsuit off? I mean my dad doesn't wear white on his days off."

"Your dad wore a blue blazer in 90 degree weather when he dropped you off yesterday, with a yellow power tie and chino pants with a crease so sharp you could cut paper on it."

"But they weren't white!"

She laughed. Danny laughed a little bit, too, and closed his eyes again.

"I really wanted to ask if your father had ever done any research on the effect of the full moon on ectoplasmic infestations?"

"What?"

"From what I've read of my dad's papers Friday the 13th significantly increases a ghost's malevolence, and Friday is the 13th. But it's also the full moon. I don't know what effect the full moon has on a ghost's power. So if there is a spectral trace at this camp it will be especially malevolent this Friday but I don't know if it will be especially powerful. I thought maybe something in your father's researches might give us a clue."

"Nah. Dad's mostly been exploring ways to pierce the dimensions between the ghost world and ours."

"That's impossible. There's no way to bridge the two dimensions. The forces involves would tear a person to shred."

"Only when the portal is stabilizing." Danny answered without thinking.

"Oh, like your father has built a working ghost-portal when all the scientists working for the government haven't been able to!"

Danny thought fast. Did his father actually know that the ghost portal was working? He had built the Fenton Fisher to snag ghost through the portal and the Fenton Genetic Lock to keep the door shut except for authorized personnel, but did that constitute actual awareness that the portal worked? Knowing his father, maybe not. But more importantly, if he did know that the portal worked he certainly hadn't told anyone else about it and that may well be for a good reason. "No, of course not." Danny lied.

"Right." Abigail got up and dusted off her shorts. "I better get back to my cabin. Look, if you hear anything more about that suicide ghost let me know, OK? Camp suicide ghosts are supposed to be real nut-jobs."

"I know. I've seen all the movies." Danny said.

Abigail laughed. "At least this one doesn't involve a chainsaw," she said as she walked away.


	3. Those Naughty Boys

_What's a city without graffiti? Canada. - Free Dan Phantom on the way to School_

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

Tuesday

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"So, did Dash sleep in his room last night?" Sam asked at breakfast the next morning.

"Mm murph mmut hm." Tuck replied, his mouth full of pancakes. Sam looked at the gooey lake of syrup surrounding Tucker's stack of pancakes and shuddered. Her own pancakes were covered with only the barest slaver of butter and a drizzle of syrup. Danny was looking at the empty syrup container, sighed, then put it down.

"I was sure he would sleep out in the main cabin with the rest of us..."

"So we pushed his cot back into the counselor's room," Tucker interrupted. "After that he was too afraid of losing face to move it back out."

"In any case, nothing happened."

"No point in pranking him two nights in a row, eh?" Tucker snickered.

"I did not prank Dash Sunday night, I was asleep when all that happened."

"Sure, Danny," Tucker jeered.

"Come on, would I lie about a thing like that?" Danny plead. "I want to get back at Dash I want to hit him with a prank he won't forget. But that wasn't me.."

"He has a point," Sam said. "Danny has never kept anything from us. But, if it wasn't you, who was it?"

"The Camp Ghost." Danny paused with a fork full of pancakes halfway to his mouth, "I think I ran into it yesterday."

"What was he like?"

"I don't know," Danny hesitated. "I never really saw it, but it sure scared the heck out of me," Swiftly he recounted what had happened

"Did your girlfriend see you in your ghost form?" Sam asked.

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Sounds awfully defensive, doesn't he, Sam" teased Tucker who had miraculously make the entire stack of pancakes on his plate disappear.

"Guys, this is serious," Danny said. "Whatever that thing was I faced yesterday, it was powerful and scary. I've got to stop it and to do that I've got to know more about it. Tucker, I need you to make an Internet search for anything you can find about this Camp Suicide."

"Ah man, I was supposed to meet T'Keisha during free time."

"Tucker, this is important. It shouldn't take you that long. You're always saying what a wiz you are doing on-line searches."

"What's Sam going to be doing while I'm missing valuable face time with T'Keisha, getting her nosed pierced?"

"Ewww?" Sam and Danny said in unison. Then looked at each other in surprise. "Why would you think I'd get my nose pierced?" Sam wondered.

"Because your new friend has her nose pierced. I thought maybe that was part of the new Goth look," Tucker said.

"She's punk, not Goth, thought we do like things that are black,"

"And the nose-ring?"

"I don't need to punch holes in my nose to prove anything," Sam snapped.

"Guys, Guys," Danny interrupted, "We have a ghost problem here! We've got to find somebody here who might know anything about this suicide story. It may be that not all the story was ever posted to the Internet." Danny said.

"Ask the Head Ranger. If anyone would know she would. And she looks old enough to have been here when it happened," Tucker suggested.

"She'd be the last person on the camp to tell us anything like that," Sam objected,

"Maybe she would if she thought it would stop the spreading of any further rumors." Danny said.

"We're scheduled for riding today," Sam said. "I bet the people working at the stable knows all about this suicide story and would be willing to talk to us."

"Good idea. Tuck, you get that Internet search going. I'll get changed and out to the stable and Sam you can...What were you going to do?"

"Enjoy summer camp," She teased. "I'll talk to the Cook. Besides I've got morning KP."

Back at the cabin Danny quickly changed his tennis shoes for a pair of work boots. The riding class required everyone to wear boots or heeled shoes. He left Tucker programming a searchbot for any records of the camp suicide. He passed kids in bathing suits heading towards their day of canoeing. Someone had given all of them red headbands so Danny guessed they belonged to the Team Red cabins. The stables were to the north of the lake, on a bit of a rise that kept the barn and corral well drained compared to the marshier land nearer the lake.

Horses were already being taken from the corral and saddled. A half dozen stable hands were helping the head horse wrangler. He was a short, stocky, elder Japanese man named Mr. Doi. Though the horses towered over him he had a surprising command over them. Danny had met Mr. Doi the previous year when he had come to the camp and found him somewhat reticent and polite but easily approachable.

As he neared the corral he noticed the horses start to stomp about nervously. They pricked up their ears and looked about. They seemed to be get more nervous the closer he got. Mr Doi, he saw, had his hands full trying to quiet the horses. Danny waited, hoping the horses would calm down so he could ask Mr. Doi about the alleged Camp Suicide. But just as the horse seemed to calm down the rest of the campers started showing up. Now Mr. Doi was busy matching up horses to riders and getting them mounted.

"So what did you find out from Mr. Doi," Sam suddenly asked from behind his back. Danny nearly fell over in surprise. "Sam, don't do that," he started to say but couldn't continue when he saw how Sam was dressed.

She was in knee-high boots, whipcord jodhpur pants, a man's buttoned shirt, and short formal coat, and all crowned with a hard hat. Everything had been dyed black, but Sam looked like she was setting out for an English fox hunt.

"Ah, Sam...?"

"Too much?"

"A little."

"I should have listened to Nanna. She said to wear jeans, but I've always dressed like this for horse riding."

"When do you go horse riding?"

"All the time...oh ... uh, it's something I don't generally mention."

"Because you don't want people to know you're stinking rich?"

"Would you?"

"I'm going to have a hard time not laughing every time I look at you today."

"So, lose the coat?"

"I'd say lose everything."

"Danny! I'm not going nude horseback riding. I'll leave the Lady Godiva bit to someone more politically motivated."

"I didn't mean that!" Danny blushed.

"Good!" Sam huffed. "Did you find out anything from Mr. Doi?"

"Never got a chance to ask him. The horses started acting up when I got there. What about you?"

"Cook does not like kids. I don't think I've heard so much profanity come out of one person before. And that was just for stepping out on the back porch where she was smoking."

"Rats. Maybe Tucker will have better luck with the on-line search."

On the west the camp rose rather swiftly for a couple hundred feet. As they rose along the trail leading to the to top the riders could see the entire camp spread out below. Off to the east was the lake and the forested area beyond it where they had picnicked the day before (and Danny had encountered that malevolent ghost). Closer in were the various clusters of cabins for the four "teams" They could see the playing field as well as the large firepit and amphitheater where they would be holding closing ceremonies on Friday. Mountains rose in the distance, each seemingly higher than the next. Of cities, towns or roads, there was none to be seen.

They were riding on a gravel trail wide enough so the riders grouped themselves in twos and threes as they rode, chattering away. Sam and Danny were riding together while Tucker was farther back with T'Keisha.

"It's going to break his heart to learn she's really a jock and hates geeks" Sam teased.

"Is she?"

"With Tucker's luck with girls, I'd bet on it."

"That is so going to kill him, We should do something."

"Never, Danny, I repeat, never get between a boy and the woman he thinks loves him. You'll lose an arm every time."

"But Tuck..."

"He'll live, and maybe I'll be wrong. One of these times he has to get lucky. Sort of like with you and that Girl in White."

"She's not my ...why do you go on about her like that. It's just like when Val and I were friends. You were all bent out of shape about that. It's like you were jealous or something."

"Me, jealous of Valerie. Danny, she's psychotic. She wants to nail your hide to her wall, your ghost hide, if ghosts have hides and you could nail them to anything."

"You're jealous." Danny retorted. Sam made a dismissive sound.

They road on in silence for a while.

"Look over there," Danny suddenly pointed. To the north of the lake and well away from all the other cabins was a small clearing in the woods with a an abandoned cabin in the middle. "What could that be?"

"I don't remember seeing it when we were here last year?" Sam said.

Danny looked again and just as suddenly the clearing had disappeared. If he looked carefully he could see the notch in the canopy of trees where the clearing existed. But only for that one brief moment had the clearing been visible as a clearing.

"If I hadn't just happen to look up when I did I don't think I would have seen it at all."

"Maybe it is an old Ranger cabin that they used before the administration center was built?" Sam suggested.

"Maybe. Or maybe it is part of a cabin cluster that was abandoned when someone got killed?"

"Don't go all melodrama on me, Danny. I'm sure there's a sensible reason for a cabin out there."

"Maybe I should fly out there tonight and check it out?" Danny suggested.

"I got a better idea, Danny. Tomorrow we're hiking in that part of the grounds. What say the three of us break away from the group and explore it together."

"Do you think we can get Romeo there away from his girlfriend?"

"What, and miss out on breaking rules and exploring a haunted house? He'll come."

They rode on for a few more minutes in silence. Danny stole glances at Sam once in a while. He was amazed how happy she seemed as she bounced in the saddle in rhythm to the horses gait. She held the reins loosely in one hand, the other resting easily on her thigh. Danny had known Sam Manson since they had met in kindergarten and in all that time he really couldn't remember a time when she looked nearly so easily and thoroughly happy as now. And he had never known that she rode before this. It made him wonder how much else about his best friend he didn't know. And whether any of it mattered.

"I've noticed that Cupcake here doesn't like to walk next to you," Sam said, breaking the silence. "She's always trying to edge away. You don't think the horses can sense that you're a ghost, do you?"

"Why?"

"Some animals are said to be sensitive about ghosts. In town we're not exactly swarming with animals so maybe we just hadn't noticed before.

"Great, another part of my life messed up with my ghost powers. Sometimes I wish..."

"Danny stop. You never know when Desiree might be lurking about. Don't wish for anything you'll regret!" Sam spoke urgently, remembering when she had made a rash wish that the malevolent ghost genie had granted.

The trail here entered a small wooded area. The cool from the shade of the nearby trees was a pleasant respite from the bright overhead sun. Suddenly there was a loud snap as one of the horses stepped on a branch. It started bucking. The girl on the horse screamed, panicking the horse even more. It tore off into the woods.

The counselors at the front and back of the line of horses stared at each other, unsure of what to do.

"Sam, cover me!" Danny called. Sam crowded her horse in next to Danny's as he threw himself from the horse. He turned ghost before hitting the ground and sped after the run-away horse.

The horse had taken off up the road they were on so Danny stayed invisible as he overtook the horse. But even though the horse couldn't see him it still sensed him and shied away as he tried reaching for the reins.

It veered off into the woods between the trail and cliff beyond. Branches slapped at the girl clinging to the saddle. Danny lost ground for a moment as he dodged around trees and branches, then remembering that he was a ghost, he straightened his course and flew through trees instead.

He tried overtaking the horse again, hoping to grab its reins and pulling it to a halt. But again, as he neared the horse, it veered away from him.

Danny angled away from the runaway horse. He tried to speed up, hoping to get ahead of the horse, then come in at it from front and grab the reins before it had a chance to sense him.

Suddenly the trees stopped. Horse, rider and ghost boy broke out into a small clearing. And just as abruptly the horse jamming its forelegs out stiff as it skidded on the loose gravel in the clearing, skidded into a stop, nearly falling to its knees. The girl, flailing wildly on the saddle pitched forward, over the horses head, sailing out into space. They had come to the cliff and the land fell away a hundred feet below in a sheer drop. The rider, largely silent except for grunts as she was thrown about the saddle, screamed as the ground rushed up to her.

Danny sped forward, diving down the side of the cliff at a speed that made the brush clinging to its side a blur as he passed. He swung under the girl, pulled up and grabbed her with solidified hands. And nearly dropped her again as weight of her fall pulled them both down. The treetops in the valley below brushed his boots by the time Danny finally stopped their fall.

Danny turned back towards the cliff. He looked down to see who he had caught. He had been so wrapped in the moment that he had not actually looked at the girl before this. It was Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde! He hadn't expected to rescue anyone he knew. And he hadn't expected to get so close to someone in his ghost form who knew him in his human form. Despite assurances from Sam and Tucker that he didn't look anything like himself as a ghost, Danny didn't want anyone guessing that Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom, least of someone obsessed with hunting ghosts like Abigail!

When he had caught her, Abigail had clung to him instinctively. Now that her fall had been stopped she was beginning to stir. She opened her eyes, saw who was holding her and screamed. She wrestled an arm free and began beating at Danny with it. "Let me go!" she was screaming. "Let me go, you darn dirty ghost!"

"I'm trying to rescue you," Danny replied but she wasn't listening. She was trying to squirm out of Danny's hold even though they hadn't reached the cliff top and hundreds of feet of air lay below her.

"Hold still," Danny tried to tell her while her free hand continued to hammer and claw at his face. "You don't want me to drop you."

Suddenly her flailing hand grabbed Danny's ear. She twisted it viciously. Danny screamed in pain. "Let go!"

Instead she twisted harder.

Danny tried to free one hand to grab at the hand on his ear and she nearly slide out of his grasp. He grabbed wildly, catching her around her head. This lead to still more screaming and now she was trying to kick him as well.

"I am thud trying ah to help ouch you!" Danny kept trying to tell her.

Suddenly a tree got in his way.

Danny hit with a crashing thud and dropped to the ground unconscious. Fortunately by then they were back on top of the cliff. Abigail rolled to the ground a few feet away. While not knocked unconscious, she was so exhausted from fighting and screaming that she lay panting for a moment.

Danny's ghost half had remarkable recuperative powers so it was only a moment later that he stirred to his feet. He saw Abigail safe on the ground, but also beginning to stir. And in the distance were the sounds of crashing hooves as a pair of counselors can galloping into the clearing. Danny faded to invisibility and flew back to Sam and Tucker. Now that Abigail was out of trouble it was time for Danny Phantom to disappear.

Danny found the other campers had been ordered to dismount and stand by their horses. Dash was on his counselor's cellphone talking to someone. Perhaps Mr. Doi or the Head Ranger. Though the camp was very strict about campers not bringing cellphones, pdas or game consoles to the camp, it was clearly wired so that no counselor was ever out of range of the Ranger Station by cellphone.

Danny grabbed the reins of his mount from Sam and tried to stand like he wasn't aching all over.

"How's your girlfriend," Sam teased.

"She's not my - - she's OK. Fell off the cliff but I caught her."

"Looks like she put up a fight."

"I ran into a tree...And she put up a fight."

Moments later one of the counselors, Porcupine, was leading Abigail out of the woods. Booger followed a few minutes later leading the three horses.

The kids crowded in around her to listen to her story.

"It was horrible," she said. "I was attacked by a ghost. It was hideous. It had snow-white hair and glowing green eyes. It was dressed all in black except for some stupid design on its chest..."

"It's not stupid!" Sam muttered. She had designed the ensign for Danny's costume and had been quite pleased with herself for incorporating D and P and wavy lines for a ghost into one emblem.

"..."I think it was an Satanic iconograph. Or possibly Cthulhuian, but I didn't get a clear view of it." Abigail continued. "It was carrying me off to its necrophilic lair but I was able to beat it off, then you came and rescued me. It must have been weak by being out in the sun. Ghosts of that sort are more powerful at night."

"I think she's enjoying this," Sam muttered.

"Nothing like being the center of attention," Tucker agreed. He had seen Danny disappear and quietly left T'Keisha's side to wait with Sam for Danny's return.

"But there was no ghost." Danny complained, keeping his voice down. "I rescued her,"

"But you are a ghost, so technically, she right," Tucker observed.

"She's blaming me for saving her life. I'm tired of trying to do good only to be blamed for whatever it was I was trying to stop.

" 'With Great Power comes Great Responsibility.' " Tucker quipped.

"Don't go quoting movies at me!"

"I think he's just upset that he didn't get a big, wet, rain-soaked kiss." Tucker told Sam.

"Wet, rain-soaked Up-side-down kiss," Sam corrected.

"Lay off me, will ya? I don't know why I bother when people are always blaming me. I'm not the villain, I'm the good guy."

"We know that."

"I know you two do, but it would be nice if other people once and a while admitted that."

"Life is monstrously unfair. That's the Goth credo. That's why I'm a Goth," Sam explained.

"Besides," Tucker cut in, "would you really feel any better if Abigail had fallen to her death?"

"That's why we love you," Sam added. "You do the right thing every time, no matter the consequences."

"That's what makes someone a hero," Tucker said.

"It still stinks."

Mr. Doi was down in a camp truck in a few minutes. He had driven around on state roads to the polo field where they were heading and had been waiting for their arrival. After a lot of arguing from Abigail, who insisted she was alright, he drove her down to the Camp Nurse's cabin for an examination. One of the farm hands stayed behind to bring up Abigail's horse.

After the truck disappeared back up the trail, the campers mounted and finished their ride.

The Polo Grounds was a flat field somewhat larger than a football field. A board fence surrounded most of it, with a pole barn off to the side where the horses could be sheltered from storms or bright sunlight. Picnic tables clustered at the other end of the field along with several porta-potties. Four antique looking covered wagons were parked near the picnic tables.

The stable hands instructed the campers in how to unsaddle their horses, wipe down the sweat and feed and water them. The horses were left grazing in the shelter of the pole barn while the campers gathered round the chuck wagons for a lesson in cowboy cooking.

The man at the wagon Danny's cabin was assigned to introduced himself as Steve and explained that he belonged to a society of historical re-enactors. He had immersed himself in western and Civil War minutia for the thrill of knowing about that era.

He went on to talk about the importance of cattle drives and of the chuck wagons that feed the cowboys as their herded their cattle to market. He followed up with some basic campfire safety and showed them how to lay a fire and get it started.

Then he passed out tubs of vegetables and set the boys to peeling and quartering them. Others were set to cubing and browning some meat. This was all thrown into a pot Steve had already set up over a fire and had been boiling quietly during his lecture.

Next came apples to be peeled and sliced and a bowl of flour which he showed how to turn into a dough. Some of the boys were growling about how cooking was a girl's task, which started Steve off on a long story about the many times where men were without women - war, exploring the frontier and so on, and had to cook for themselves or starve. Danny remembered the times he had baked cookies with his mother and how delicious they tasted coming straight out of the oven, hot, soft with gooey melted chocolate bits. He wondered how Sam was doing in her group. As he recalled, Sam hated cooking or anything traditionally domestic.

The pies were placed in an ingenious cast iron box with a tight-fitting rimmed lid. Steve got out a shovel and piled embers on top the lid as well as setting the rest of the box at the edge of the embers.

After that everyone was released for a hours play. Half-way through, the camp truck returned with Mr. Doi. He explained that the nurse wanted to hold the girl a couple hours for observation just in case there was an internal injury.

The clang of a large iron triangle brought the kids back to the chuck wagons where the re-enactors served them stew, beans and pie. Coffee, the other stable of western cuisine, however, was replaced with cans of pop.

Afterwards Mr Doi lead the kids in classes on horse etiquette, saddling, mounting, the different gaits and so on. Though it was called the Polo Grounds no one actually played polo there since the liability issue was too great for the camp. However a couple of the more experienced stable hands did put on a brief show of speed and agility for the campers. By mid-afternoon the campers were saddling up again, to began their descent back to the stables.

All of a sudden the counselors were coming down the line of waiting rider asking if they had seen Tracy, one of the girls from the Sumac cabin. Danny looked at the corral and noticed that one horse was still there. As the counselors rode back to Mr. Doi, Danny heard Dash mutter "Can anything worse go wrong day?" For once Danny found himself in agreement with the bully.

Mr Doi ordered all the campers to dismount and tie up their horses. Them each of the counselors took their group to one of the edges of the Polo Field and formed them into a line, each an arms-length apart from the next and extending into the forest. Danny arranged to be on the end next to Tucker. The counselors lead them in a search of the grounds around the clearing.

"Cover for me," Danny whispered, then turned ghost and sped off to look for the missing girl at ghost-speed.

Since his ghost sense hadn't gone off Danny assumed Tracy had just wandered away and maybe had become lost. He soared high, thinking he could see more territory that way but found that trees grow together too thickly. Danny dropped to ground level and sped through the trees looking for some clue of Tracy's passage. In the distance he could hear the different search teams calling out to each other.

Danny had circled the Polo field five or six times at every wider distances when he noticed something wrong about a thicket as he passed over it. He looped back and looked at it more closely. At first he couldn't tell what had caught his attention, then noticed that some of the branches looked broken, disturbed. He landed, solidified and began to slowly walk around it. The first thing he noticed was that the thicket covered a steep ravine. He couldn't actually walk around it, only along one side. But a careful look at the ground didn't show any footprints, any sign that someone has been there. After a time he flew over to the other side of the ravine. It was the side facing away from the Polo Field. He had assumed if Tracy was here she would have fallen in from the side facing the Polo Field. As soon as he got to the other side he could see scuff marks in the leaf litter, clearly broken branches and the glint of something white at the edge of the thicket.

Danny bent over and picked it up. It was a girl's tennis shoe, clean and dry so it hadn't been here long. Danny went ghost and turned intangible. He floated over the thicket and slowly descended, passing through interlocking branches with ease. In the gloom at the bottom of the thicket, a good ten feet below the surface above, Danny spotted a small form lying still on the ground.

It was a girl with short frizzy hair, a little plump and missing one shoe. Danny floated around to where he could get ahold of her, then extended his intangibility to include her. Slowly he floated back up to the surface.

Danny laid the girl on the ground while he went to fetch her other shoe. He set the shoe on her stomach then picked her up in his arms. He started to fly back to the Polo Field.

The fresh air blowing over her face must have revived her some because she started to stir.

"It's OK," Danny said, "I'm here to rescue you."

The girl looked up and screamed.

"Not again!"

"Put me down. Put me down!"

"Ok. Sure, Danny said.

The girl was clawing at his face.

"Hey, leave the ear along!" Danny screamed. "I'm landing. I'm landing. Give me a minute!"

The landing was more of a crash. Tracy tore out of his arms and ran away, screaming.

"Wrong way. The field is over that way!" he called when he realized Tracy was running back into the forest.

She didn't stop running.

Danny sighed and took off after her. He circled around and stopped in front of her. With a scream Tracy changed course. Danny flew ahead again and waited for her to see him. That way he slowly herded back towards the Polo Field and the search parties. Finally the panicking girl heard the searchers and started running directly towards them. Grateful that he had gotten her back with the group, Danny flew off to rejoin Tucker.

It was another half-hour before the campers were finally ready to return to the stable. Tracy was too distraught to ride so she rode back in the truck with Mr. Doi. One of the hands rode the horse back. With the excitement over the kids had nothing left to do but complain. More than a few were suddenly aware of how sore their behinds were. Horse-riding was harder activity than most people realized. Sam, Danny noticed, seemed as fresh as she had in the morning and rode with the strange bouncing motion she called "posting."

Mr Doi, having driven around the campgrounds in the truck, met them at the stables and took charge of the horses. Danny waited until all the horses had been put away, then sought out Mr Doi. He was piling a bale of hay on a wheelbarrow and cutting the strings.

"If you want to know how your friend is doing you should ask the Nurse," Mr Doi said, looking up. "I really don't know anything more about the matter." The older man pushed the wheelbarrow along the stalls, pulling off flakes and throwing it into the horses' mangers.

"Actually, Mr. Doi, I wanted to ask you about something else." Danny explained. He followed Mr Doi back to the feed room when the stable manager started scooping a mixture of oats and molasses into small buckets he then piled into the wheelbarrow. "It's about-- kids are talking-- um--"

Mr Doi stopped and looked at Danny patiently.

"It's about the Camp Ghost--"

"Oh, that. It seems like the kids always bring that up every year. There is no camp ghost." Mr. Doi turned back to filling the feed buckets.

"But wasn't there a camper killed here once?" Danny blurted out.

Very sadly Mr. Doi answered, "yes, but that was a long time ago. It's not something to concern yourself about. The matter was dealt with at the time. And there is no ghost."

"But--"

"This should be a time in your life for happiness and fun, son, you should not be weighing yourself down worrying about things that do not matter."

"But--"

Mr Doi smiled at Danny and picked up the handles of the wheelbarrow, "I can't help you."

By the time Danny got back to the cabin the day's mail has been distributed and he had to knock on the counselor's door to pick up his. Dash glared at him from the door and assigned him KP for being late.

Danny spent a dismal hour scrubbing pots. Sweaty and smelling of old grease, he went outside for some fresh air. He found the cook there, sitting to one side of the loading dock, surrounded with smelly garbage cans waiting to be hauled away. She was sitting on an old straight back chair chain-smoking.

"Hey, kid, Danny isn't it? What are you doing here? I've got Staff who don't work as much as you have."

"I got assigned KP. I think my camp counselor doesn't like me. Every day he finds something different I've done wrong and here I am again."

"Big tall, blond guy, thinks he's God's gift to football?"

"Yeah, that's him. Dash Baxter."

"Jerk." She took a long drag on her cigarette and looked at the butt end as smoke trickled out her nose. She fished down the front of her dress and pulled a pack of cigarettes from her enormous bosom, shook out a fresh cigarette and stuff the rest back where they came from. Using the ember from the butt of her old cigarette she lit the new one and flicked the other butt into pit of the truck ramp.

"They hate me smoking around you kids but not enough to fire me. So as long as I sneak off back here -- where's you're not supposed to be -- they pretend not to see. You don't smoke, do you?"

"I'm only fourteen," Danny protested.

"Well, don't start. It's a filthy habit." She took a long drag on her cigarette. "I started smoking when I was thirteen. Thought it was cool. Knew it would piss-off my mother." She paused to inhale again, then had a fit of coughing. "Now I can't quit if I wanted to--and believe me I would love to." Her cigarette was already gone, so she fished in her cleavage for another, lighting it off the butt of the other. "Something I can do for you, kid--Danny, isn't it?"

"No. I just came out for some air -- wait, maybe you could tell me something."

"Shoot, kid."

"It's about the Camp Ghost."

"Oh, that."

"Is there any truth to it?"

"Oh, sure. Most of the time the ghost doesn't do anything."

"Other times...?"

"They keep it hushed up."

"How did it happen?"

The cook took a long drag on her cigarette and thought.

"Look, if you don't want to tell me, that's OK, I understand. I'm just a kid," Danny said.

"Nah, it's not that. I always figure when someone asks me something I ought to tell them as best I can. No point in trying to hide stuff from kids, they'll just find anyway. I was just trying to remember what I do know about it.

"It was pretty awful . Everybody was walking around talking in hushed tone, shutting up entirely when kids were around. I was just a kid back then, maybe half your age, so I never hear nothing except from around doors and such. Later on everyone assumes you know as much as they do so they never explain what had happened.

"What I recall was that someone went crazy and killed a camper. Who was the victim and who was the killer I don't know. There was some talk about calling it a suicide but then I heard that they never found the head. That pretty much rules suicide doesn't it. It's hard to cut your head off when you're already dead."

She delved into her dress again. After fumbling a moment she pulled out the pack and poked around in it. Disgusted, she waded it up and threw it away. She felt around in her dress again. After a moment Danny had to look away, it was just too gross. With an "Aha," the cook pulled one lone cigarette out of her dress, all bent and crumbled. She straightened it out as best she could, stuck it between her lips and lit with the fag-end of her last cigarette. "I knew I had one left around somewhere. So, where was I?"

"You said the victims head had been cut off."

"Oh, yeah. I've seen enough of dead people when I was working as an aide in a nursing home -- that's why I became a cook, to get out of that -- but I don't never want to run across something like that."

"When did it happen?"

I can't recall what year, but it was summer; Friday the 13th."

"Like this year."

"Why, what do you know, so it is. Must have been 50 years back or so but like I said I can't recall what year."

"And you don't know who was killed, or who did it or why or how. What about where?"

"Sorry, kid. Like I said, I was just a kid at the time. I suppose it's all in the newspaper somewhere if you really want find out." She took a final drag on her cigarette and flung the last little bit into the truck pit. "Well, kid, that's the end of my cigarette break. I've got to get back to work. Is there anything else you want to ask?"

"No. Thanks for your help. You're the first adult who actually bothered to answer my questions."

"No problem. Just don't tell anybody. I'm no fount of wisdom and I don't want my break-time taken up answering people's questions."

When Danny got back to the cabin the others were anxiously chatting about something. They instantly hushed when he stepped inside.

"What's going on?" he asked but nobody answered.

He went over to his cot and dropped down on it. Tucker was rooting around in his locker, "Hey Tucker," Danny called quietly, "What's going on?"

"We're going to spy on the girls' shower," Tucker replied. "Someone found a hole in one of the walls of Hemlock cabin. If you look carefully you can see into the showers."

"Are you nuts!" Danny exclaimed in a quiet whisper. "You can't do a thing like that. It's--it's immoral."

"We're just looking, Danny, nobody's going to get hurt."

"But it's wrong, just wrong."

"Come on, Danny, lighten up. Don't you even want to see a naked woman?"

"Yes, but not that way! Tucker, Sam's in that cabin. What if she's in the shower?"

"That won't happen." Tucker replied.

Danny rolled over on his cot and looked Tucker in the eye. "But what of she is?"

"I sure as heck won't tell, that's for sure."

"She's our friend, Tuck. We don't spy on our friends."

"Right, like you didn't spy on her when she was going out with the Gregor guy!" Tucker angrily whispered, "If you feel that strongly about this, go and warn Sam to stay out of the shower. Just don't tell her why."

"I thought Gregor was a ghost, and don't think I didn't get from Sam when she found out. That's one reason this is such a bad idea." Danny argued. "And how am I going to warn her? Neither one of us has a cell phone."

"Talk to her through the floorboards."

"Tucker, that's just plain crazy."

"I'm going on this thing, Danny, and I don't want you doing anything to stop it."

"Tucker..."

"Danny, if you're not in with us, then butt out." Tucker got up, slammed the lid of the trunk closed and stormed out of the cabin.

Daniel Fenton watched his friend leave, followed a few moments later by the others in the cabin, He was all alone in the cabin. He couldn't help feeling more alone than at any other time in his life. Shaking his head he muttered a disheartened "I'm going ghost," changed to his ghostly form and floated through the cabin wall looking for Sam.

Floating above the cabins Danny could see the cluster of boys grouped around the corner of the girls' cabin where the showers were. The door to the cabin was in direct view so he couldn't just knock on the door and ask to see Sam. And he couldn't just float into the cabin and look for Sam, that was just as bad as looking through some knothole in the wall. The cabins had wood floors built on a foundation a few inches above the ground. Danny flew into the ground and came up under the floor. He could hear a number of girls talking, some loudly, some more softly. He tried to listen for the sound of Sam's voice. Occasionally he'd move to a different part of the floor. He was about to give up in frustration when he heard Sam laugh. He flowed over near where the laugh came from and listened again. Finally he heard Sam speaking, talking to someone, but her voice was too muffled to understand.

"Sam!" Danny called. And when nothing happened tried calling a little louder. He called to her a third time without attracting her attention. Solidifying his hand, Danny rapped on the floor. Sam suddenly stopped talking so he had caught her attention. He tapped a couple more times and waited. After a moment there was a loud plop as a book fell on the floor. He could hear Sam said "Oops," and there was the squeak of springs as someone rolled out of a cot. Almost too soft to hear Sam called out, "Danny?"

"Sam, I've got to talk to you."

"What are you doing under the girls' cabin?"

"Sam, this is important."

"Couldn't you just come to the door like a normal person?"

"No, Sam, I can't explain just -- don't take a shower. Got that?"

"Don't take a shower? What are you talking about?"

"I can't explain. Just--Just don't go into the showers tonight. Please."

"You OK, Sam?" another girl's was asking.

"Oh, yeah, my pen rolling under the bed and I'm having trouble finding it."

"Want my flashlight?" the other girl offered.

"No, it's alright." Suddenly whispering next to the floor, Sam said, "Danny, get out from under the girls' cabin right now. You can tell me what this is all about tomorrow but I'm not going to spend the rest of the night talking to the floor."

"Sam..."

"Not listening!" There was a squeak of spring, "Got it," he heard her said from far away.

Danny drifted out from under the cabin, flew over to the picnic tables in the center between the four cabins. He sat down and wondered what more could he do. He didn't have long to wonder.

Suddenly there was a scream from the girls' cabin, doors slammed, the outdoor lights flashed on catching the handful of boys still clustered around the wall of the girls' shower. Butterfly came charging out of the cabin, dressed in a long gown, waving a flashlight and screaming at the boys.

"Perverts! Bastards! Filthy dirty weasels! How dare you! You'll hear from the Head Ranger about this!" As she charged after them she passed the woodpile used for the central firepit. She grabbed up a stick and heaved at the scattering boys. She was still screaming at the boys when the pile started rising of its own accord. Danny felt a chill run down his spine and felt more than saw the blue fog coming out of his mouth. A ghost was near. As the firework rained itself on the boys Danny Fenton changed back to Danny Phantom and charged ahead to find the source of the evil.

Winds were whipping up around Butterfly, blowing up her hair into the air, tear at the grass on the ground around her. She seemed froze in position, in the act of throwing a log at the boys. The wind was catching up more logs from the pile and throwing them all around, hitting boys, the cabins, the trees around the camp. Danny blasted the logs whenever they came near someone but there were more of them in the air than he could easily keep track of. He looked around for the manifestation of the ghost, something that he could attack directly but the ghost seemed all around without being anywhere.

Since Butterfly was at the center of the manifestation he tried to grab her and pull her away to safety but the winds whipped up harder and harder, building a wall that he could not break through. Danny looped back away from her then charged at full speed. He knew he could reach speeds of over a hundred miles and hour. At that speed he ought to have been able to plow right through the wall of wind and dash away whatever ghost was possessing Butterfly. But the winds rose up and drove he away.

Cries of pain caught Danny's attention and he saw a couple of boys cowering just out of the range of the yard lights, kindling raining down on then like water. Danny dived over and grabbed them up with solidified hands and pulled them near their cabin before dropping them to the ground. He turned and nearly got clobbered by a flying log. He dove again at Butterfly, trying to grapple with the ghost inside her. He was afraid to use his ecto-blasts for fear of hurting Butterfly, but the ghost had grabbed such a hold on her that he didn't know what else he could do.

A flash of movement, the thud of Doc Martens on the ground. Danny turned to see Sam sprinting from the cabin. She dodged the flying firewood and leaped into a flying tackle, pulling the possessed counselor to the ground. "Snap out of it," Danny could hear her scream. Sam shook the counselor where they lay on the ground. There was a subtle change in the electric atmosphere around the cabins. The winds died down, what was left of the firewood fell to the ground. Butterfly slowly stirred. She looked at the stick of wood still clenched in her hand, then dropped it.

"Did I trip?" she asked. "Where did all those little perverts get to. I can't believe they drilled a hole in the wall. Sam, what are you doing here?"

Danny sailed around the perimeter of the camp but could no longer detect any spectral presence. He changed back to normal and went over to see how Butterfly was. Booger and Porcupine are already running over. The other campers slowly filed out and congregated near-by. Danny idly noted that Dash Baxter was conspicuously absent as were any of the other boys from his cabin.

Butterfly has suddenly started crying, while Sam awkwardly tried to conform her. Moments later a jeep tore into the lane and skidded to a stop. The Head Ranger jumped out and ran over to where Butterfly still sat on the ground.

"What's going on here?" she demanded.


	4. Throwing Gas on the Fire

_These is a bit that Dad just turn out, said it was for the middle of Chapter 3 and, well, here ya go._

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

As Danny was turning up the trail leading to the cabins he saw someone come out of the nurse's office. Even at that distance he could make out her red hair and white shorts. Abigail. common courtesy said to wait for her and at least say 'hi'. But he remembered how she had beat at him and twisted his ear. He didn't really want anything to do with her. He was turning to go when she unexpectedly called out "Hey, wait!" and started running towards him.

So Danny waited until she had come up to him. "Hey," he said. "The nurse cut you loose?"

"Yeah. There wasn't anything wrong with me. They were just being super-cautious, you know. Don't want any lawsuits."

"And you're not traumatized by being saved by a ghost."

"It was trying to kidnap me, not rescue. Why is it so hard to you to get that straight?"

Because I was there? No, that wouldn't do. "Because everything the counselors said makes it sounds like you got thrown over the cliff by your horse and the ghost boy caught you in mid-air and was trying to fly you back?"

"Whatever. Walk with me back to camp," Abigail unexpectedly asked.

"Why?"

"Does everything have to have a reason?"

"I thought you didn't like me?"

"I never said that."

"Well you pick on my father a lot?"

"But he's weird..."

"He's still my father. How would you like it if I made fun of your father all the time?"

"You do."

"No I don't."

"Guys in White - 'government morons...' What am I supposed to think? Well, are you coming?" she asked

"I don't know."

"Don't tell me you need permission from your mommy before you can do anything?"

"My mother?"

"That Goth girl you're always hanging about. It's like you can't spit without asking her first. Don't you ever do anything on your own."

"Sam's not my mother. I don't need permission from her to do anything."

"Great, then let's walk."

"Did I miss anything while the Nurse was checking me out?"

"Let's see? We had burnt baked potatoes and half cooked hamburger stew for lunch..."

"Yum. Sounds better than what they serve in the cafeteria."

"Don't let Mrs Sanchez hear you say that."

"The cook?" Abigail laughed.

"Then a girl named Tracy got lost."

"Did they find her."

"Yeah."

"Was she kidnapped by the camp ghost as well?"

"No. There was no ghost involved. She fell in a ravine." Danny suddenly realized that Tracy had seen a ghost -- him -- so he couldn't just pretend that she hadn't. "I guess maybe she did see a ghost but it was kind of leading her back to the Polo Field."

"I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"There was a ghost here."

"Sunday you said there were no ghosts here."

"I said my parents wouldn't never let me come here if they thought there was a ghost haunting it. That much is true. But my research had indicated that something wasn't right at Sleepy Hollow, so I talked them into letting me come here."

"I wondered why you had come far away from Virginia to go camping. So you're trying to be a Girl in White on your own?"

"Why not, it sounds exciting. Mom's in management at some big corporation. She says it makes her feel important but it sounds deathly boring to me."

They turned up the trail towards their cabins. The trail was very shady here, cool and damp with an earthy smell.

"You planning to follow in your father's footsteps?"

Danny looked at her suspiciously.

"You know, studying ghost, inventing ghost fighting gadgets and all that. It wasn't a dig at your father." Abigail ended defensively.

"I've always wanted to be an astronaut."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'd love to go out into space. Visit other planets, travel to other stars. I want to go out and do something that no else has ever done before."

"That's cool. I've always sort of thought space was cool. But not for me. I've always wanted to be Lara Croft."

Danny looked at her, then looked her up and down. She was still wearing the clothes she was wearing in the morning, white shorts with a crisply folded cuff , a sleeveless white T-shirt, white knee-high socks and work boots. "You've got the look right," Danny observed.

"Oh, you're just looking at my boobs."

"I was not!"

"Then why weren't you?"

"What!"

"I love messing with your head. You embarrass so easily. You're kind of cute when you blush."

"I wasn't looking at your..." Danny couldn't bring himself to say the word.

"Danny, girls know what boys at looking at. It's not that hard to follow their eyes. You may not think you were looking at my boobs, but you were. -- Wow. I think your face is redder than my hair. I didn't think that was possible."

Unexpectedly she slipped her arm around Danny's and pulled him closer. "I'm serious about wanting to be like Lara Croft. I want to go out into jungles and explore lost cities, dig up ancient tombs, find things that no one else has ever found. Kind of like you and your astronaut dream."

"You make it sound like we both don't want to have anything to do with what our parents do," Danny said, uncomfortable with the way her arm felt in his, the occasional brush of their hips together.

"My father doesn't want me to do anything unless it is one hundred percent perfectly safe. I can't go to the mall with friends, unless there's an adult with us. I can't go to a movie with a boy unless it's a double date. It doesn't really have anything to do with him being a ghost hunter. I just want to go where I want, went I want. But you, being a boy, doesn't have that kind of a problem. You wouldn't understand."

"I don't know," Danny said. "My parent are pretty strict, too."

"You only think they're strict. Boys have no idea what it's like growing up a girl."

Danny had no answer to that. He could have asked if she had any idea what it was like growing up as a ghost in a household of professional ghost hunters. That he thought would trump any claims that girls have it worse than boys. But he realized that he didn't know her well enough to confide anything like that to her. After an awkward pause he asked, "Do you think there are ghosts on mars?" Danny asked.

"You gotta have people before you can have ghosts. Ghosts are an ectoplasmic manifestation of a psychic signature of a specific person. No people, no ghosts."

"But what if mars was alive, like a billion years ago. Current research suggests that mars was wetter, maybe had a thicker atmosphere. Who's to say that life didn't begin there?"

"Maybe we should send a Fenton Finder to Mars on the next satellite."

"Why not?"

"And a Fenton Bazooka with our first Marsonauts?"

"You don't think I'm serious."

Oh, Danny. Of course, if you did go to Mars and find the first ghosts there it would kind of keep you in the family business. And I'd bet you would look dashing in a jumpsuit."

"What about you, what attracts you to lost cities and ancient treasures?"

"What girl wouldn't want to put her hands on some treasure, lost or otherwise?"

"The snakes and insects and stifling heat, the lack of basic convenience, even cell phone contact, none of that would bother you?"

"That's what makes it thrilling. No one to fall back on, having to live as if every action was absolutely crucial -- because it would be. I think I would love that. And I love ancient things. Trying to understand forgotten cultures, ancient literature, religions. I want to understand the world and I guess to do that I need to understand the past."

"But not as part of some team?"

"I'm not a team player. I know it's a horrible thing to say, especially for a girl because we're supposed to be so group oriented and understanding of the feelings of others. That's just not me. I like doing things my way and I like old things. Except for my boys, I them young."

"Oh, geez," Danny pulled out of her grasp and gave her an exasperated look.

"Come on, Danny, I'm just teasing."

"I can't tell the difference with you." he complained.

"Would I be talking to you if I didn't like you?"

"I guess not."

They were nearing the clearing where their cabins were. In another few steps they'd go to their separate cabins and this special moment would be over. Suddenly Danny felt the need to seize the moment.

"Abigail, do you think there are ghosts who aren't evil?"

"Why do you ask?" the red-head asked.

Danny kind of wondered why he had blurted that out, too. It was cutting a little too close to telling her about his secret.

"Just curious." he said.

"Good ghosts? Only in comic books. There has never been a ghost in recorded history that wasn't evil."

"What about the ghost of the Dairy King?"

"There's a Dairy ghost?"

"Never mind."Danny realized what a fool he'd been. Abigail was pretty and friendly and liked many of the things he did but as long as she believed all ghosts were evil, well, that included him, Danny Phantom as well. He was flattered that she might have thought of him as boyfriend material but her hatred of ghosts was an insurmountable barrier.

The wall of trees opened up to reveal the cabins a short distance ahead. Danny turned to Abigail ans said, "It's been fun talking to you. I'm glad you weren't hurt today."

"Yeah this was nice." She suddenly leaned in and pressed her lips to his cheek. "Thanks for walking me back to the cabins," she said then skipped ahead.

Danny was still blushing a few moments later when he found Sam sitting at one of the picnic tables, looking at him crossly.

"You've got lipstick on your cheek." she announced.

Danny hastily scrubbed at his cheek then looked at his hand.. "There's no lipstick," he said.

"Not for her lack of trying!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Danny, I don't mind that you want to chase girls but why do you always go chasing after the ones that want to kill you?"

"What do you mean?"

First Val, now this Abigail. She's the daughter of a Guy in White. What do you think will happen if she ever find out that you're a ghost."

"It won't happen."

"You don't know. Anything could happen but the more time you spend hanging around her the greater the chance she finds out."

"She won't. Where's your friend with all the piercing?"

"Off with some boy. But we're talking about you.

"Sam, I'm not a child. Ican tie my own shoes. And I know how to keep a secret." He stalked off towards his cabin, under his breath he muttered,"she sounds just like my mother?"

"What did you say?" Sam called after him.

"Nothing. See you in the morning..."


	5. Cold Eggs and Sam

"I'm not talking to you."

Danny looked up as he and Tucker slid into seats across from Sam Manson in the dining hall. "What did I do?" he asked.

"Not you -- him!" Sam pointed towards Tucker who was furiously salt and peppering his eggs.

"Hey, what did I do? "Tucker asked.

"I'm not talking to you."

"Come on, Sam, lighten up."

"Don't make excuses for him, Daniel Fenton. You're on my list, too!"

"Hey, no one calls me 'Daniel' but my mother! And even then only when I'm in trouble."

"You don't think you're in trouble?"

"But I tried to warn you. Isn't that what you would have wanted me to do? I tried to do the right thing."

"Just barely. How could you come sneaking under the girl's cabin. That's almost as bad as drilling a hole in the girl's shower."

"Drilled? I thought it was a knothole or something." Tucker said

"I'm not talking to you."

"Sam, I was just trying to warn you."

"Then why didn't you come to the door? That's what people who aren't perverts do."

"I--I couldn't."

"Because you'd be seen by the others?"

"Yeah," Danny said softly, sadly.

"If you had tried to stop this before it happened..."

"If I had I may as well have packed my bags and left camp because my life would have been hell for the rest of the week. And I may as well plan on moving to another school because Dash would rally all the jocks against me and make my life hell there, too."

"He's right, you know." Tucker injected.

"I'm not talking to you!"

"Come on, Sam." Tucker plead. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry about last night. It seemed like fun when Dash was explaining it..."

"Dash?" Danny and Sam said in unison. "Dash was behind this?" Sam continued. "Oh! He is such a creep."

"And Danny tried to stop me," Tucker continued. "But I was so caught up in the moment. And the way Dash explained it nobody would get hurt..."

"You were violating our privacy!"

"I thought you weren't talking to me?"

Sam growled and bent down to attack her breakfast, which as an Ultra-Recyclo-Vegetarian, consisted of some greasy hashbrowns and toast. Some vegetarians only refuse to eat meat while others vegetarians, like the Ultra-Recyclo-Vegetarians also refuse to eat eggs or any dairy product since they come from the exploitation of animals.

"Sam, I'm really sorry. It was a stupid thing to do. And I would never, ever do anything like that again."

"You're only sorry because you got caught." Sam said.

"I was trying to apologize, but if you don't want it, fine, I'll go someplace where I am appreciated." Tucker grabbed his tray and get up. He headed across the room to where T'keisha was sitting.

"Sam, you know he really is sorry." Danny said.

"Only because he got caught!"

"Come on, Sam, you, I and Tucker have been best friends since forever..."

"kindergarten"

"Exactly. We've all of us, done things which were pretty stupid at one time or another. I don't want to have to choose between you and Tucker. I don't want to lose either you or Tuck as friends. You've got to forgiven him." Danny plead.

Sam had been picking the hash brown patty apart, looking closely at the greasy strings of shredded potato. "Do you think this is lard or vegetable oil?" she asked.

"Sam!" Danny ask with exasperation.

"Oh, probably. Just not right now. I am so mad at you two. You and your dumb code of Omerta."

"Code of what?"

"Omerta. Silence. Didn't you ever watch The Godfather?"

"Oh." Danny eat in silence for a moment. He watched Sam slaver a slice of toast with something yellow from a tub. "Are you sure that's not butter?" he asked. "Knowing Cook, I'll bet it is."

Sam looked at her slice of toast then dumped it on her plate. "I have got to talk to the Head Ranger about a proper alternative vegetarian menu."

"Danny Fenton, you have got to call your father!"

Danny and Sam looked up, startled, at that. Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde sat down in an open spot next to Sam.

"We had three ghost attacks yesterday," she explained. "That's serious. We need to find and stop this ghost before something really bad happens on Friday."

Sam, confused, asked, "Why Friday?"

"It's the13th, and she believes that ghosts are more malevolent on the 13t,." Danny explained.

"Also it's the full moon. We need to find out if the full moon makes ghosts more powerful." Abigail added.

"Why do you say there were three ghost attacks yesterday. There weren't any." Danny said.

"Oh, come on, don't be dense," Abigail snapped. "First there was the ghost that attacked me..."

"Your horse stepped on a branch and bolted at the sound of the branch breaking. There was no ghost involved," Sam rejoined.

"There was so a ghost there. It pulled me off my horse and tried to carry me away to its lair. If I hadn't fought it off who knows what it would have done to me!" She paused for a breath. "I'll never forget it's hideous visage. It had glowing eyes, like two saucers, green and malevolent. And hair, white and blowing in the wind like it was made of fire. And it wore some kind of black robe with some kind of stupid insignia on its chest."

"It wasn't stu--" Sam began

"It wasn't what?" Abigail asked.

"I--ah--was--ah--asking Danny if he was going to finish those eggs," Sam pointed to a greasy fried egg still untouched on Danny's plate.

Danny looked at the egg, listened to his stomach grumble, then manfully said, "sure. Here, enjoy." and slide his egg onto Sam's plate. She cut off a portion of egg white and popped into her mouth and chewed. She hastily swallowed before her stomach revolted.

"It sounded to me that that ghost was trying to save you after you fell off the cliff, not have its way with you." Danny suggested.

"You don't know anything. You weren't there!" Abigail rebuked.

Danny opened his mouth to protest. He caught Sam shaking her head and closed it. "So when did the second ghost attack that place?" He asked instead.

"That was when Tracy got lost. Only she didn't get lost. The ghost lured her away from the group and then carried her away."

"I thought she had fallen into a ravine and had been knocked out?" Danny said.

"Ravine? Tracy didn't say anything about a ravine."

"But-- I-- I thought-- Her shoe--"

"What are you going on about?" Abigail asked.

"I--don't know. What did she say happened?"

"Well, she can't remember too much about what happened at first. She kind of remembers wanting to go for a walk. Then it's all kind of dark until she woke up being carried by this demon. Green eyes, white hair, black costume, stupid insignia on its chest. So it had to be the same one that attacked me. If she hadn't fought free who knows what it might have done to her?"

"But it seemed to be bringing her back to the Polo Field." Sam said. "It kind of sounds like it was trying to, you know, rescue her as well."

"Rescue her, are you nuts? Why are you taking the side of a ghost?"

"Maybe he's a friendly ghost?" Sam suggested.

Abigail rolled her eyes and turned back to Danny.

"The third time was last night when those creepy boys were trying to spy on us. There was a whole host of poltergeist-related phenomena. It was almost a classic case. Firewood was flying through the air, a wind whipped up but only around Butterfly. Then that ghost boy came in to try and carry Butterfly away."

"I thought he was trying to rescue her from the --ah-- poltergeist?" Danny said.

"Oh get your head out of the sand. You're Danny Fenton, Jack Fenton's son. You know more about ghosts than anyone else at this camp and you can't see that the ghost was attacking Butterfly?"

"But poltergeists are related to awaking sexuality," Sam interrupted. "And expresses the anchors' fears and anxieties. So who exactly was the anchor for the poltergeist? The boys? Hardly, since it attacked them? The girls in the shower? They never saw who was involved. The only one who fits is Butterfly. She saw the boys, she felt violated by them, she attacked them. That explains everything without bringing in your ghost boy at all. So it seems to me that the ghost boy was there to fight the poltergeist, not the other way around."

"Where did you learn so much about ghosts?"

"When you hang around with a Fenton, you pick things up." Sam smirked.

Danny looked longingly at the egg on Sam's plate. She hadn't touched it since taking the one bite. "Look, if you're so concerned about this ghost, why don't you call in your father. Have a professional take care of it."

"Are you nuts!" Abigail exploded. "If I tell my dad that there's a ghost at this camp he'll have it closed down so fast your head would explode. There is no way I'm going to call my father and ruin my vacation. That's why you've got to call your dad."

"Like my dad wouldn't come charging down here and ruin my vacation?" Danny angrily answered. "The last thing I want is my dad running around the camp yelling "ghost" every five minutes."

"But with your dad isn't that kind of normal? If he came down no one would really notice."

"Would you stop putting down my dad!" Danny was getting red in the face.

"I'm not putting down your father."

"Then what do you call it?"

"I was stating--"

" 'Facts'? I don't think so."

"But this ghost is serious, Fenton. I got a reading on it Tuesday that was off the chart. That's what I was looking for when I ran into you. But then the spectral surge had disappeared. But for a moment it manifested itself at a level I have never seen before. We have to stop it before people get hurt, and there is no question in my mind that it intends to hurt people. You have got to help me stop this ghost."

"Call you dad." Danny said, too angry to dare say any more.

There was a clatter of dishes besides Danny. He looked and saw Tucker slipping back into his seat.

"Private conversation here." Abigail hissed.

"What's the matter, Tuck, I thought you were eating with T'Keisha?"

"She's not talking to me, either."

"Oh, Man I am so sorry."

"It's OK, Danny. Nothing new for me. Ol' Tuck's luck with women remains unchanged."

"Hello, private conversation here," Abigail interrupted again.

"Yes, I know, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't interrupt," Danny snapped. With a hiss Abigail grabbed her tray and stalked off.

"Well, so much for your girlfriend," Sam teased.

"She's not my girlfriend. And that joke is getting pretty old by now."

"Boy, you two are a couple of downers, that's my job. Look, Danny, our miss Girl in White is right. This ghost is serious and we need to do something about it."

"I know that. But I can't call dad. That would just make things worse."

"And you can't call your mom because she would probably catch onto you being Danny Phantom," Sam continued.

Danny nodded.

But there's still one person you can talk to..."

"Vlad?"

"No, lord, no! Where did that idea come from? Your sister, dummy -- Jazz."

"Why would she help me?"

"Because she's your sister? Because she's been helping you ever since she discovered you were a half-ghost. How many times has she distracted your parents when you needed to go ghost? Ask her. She's understand why you can't go to your parents."

Danny nodded his head. "Ya, that's a good idea. I'll E-mail her as soon as I get out of KP."

"KP? I thought you did you stint already?"

"Head Ranger's punishing everyone in our cabin--8PM curfew, KP for the rest of the week. I think the only reason she didn't expel all of us was because no one besides Butterfly actually saw who was at the wall, and Butterfly is still too distraught to speak."

"Well, you deserve it." Sam stated. She looked at Tucker Foley. He was slowly pushing the food around on his plate. Knowing his talent for consuming a Nasty Burger in two bites, she knew that this wasn't normal for him. With a sigh she said, "I'll have a talk with T'Keisha." Sam got up, looked at the egg on her plate and slid it back onto Danny's plate, then carried her tray to the wash up window.

Danny stuffed a large chunk of egg into his mouth.

"Oh, Man, It's cold!"

In hour later Danny Tucker and Sam were standing around the firepit in the center of the cluster of cabins. Danny had on his jeans and the work boots he'd used for riding. A bulging backpack rested on his shoulders. Tucker, likewise had dressed much as usual except for hiking boots instead of sneakers. His backpack threatened to over-turn him. The instructions for the over-night camping experience had said to only bring the essentials. It was always hard with Tucker to tell what were the essentials. Sam, Danny was surprised to note, was dressed in her usual school gear, plaid skirt over leggings and Dr. Marten boots, and black belly T-short. She wore her safari hat and carried a slender black backpack. Sewn into the back were indigo sequins forming a skull, with red sequins picking out the eyes.

"What did you do, make Tucker carry all your gear?" Danny asked.

"No. When I travel light, I travel light." Besides you would be amazed how much all this stuff folds up."

The counselors got together and started the hike. The group would follow a trail around the north side of the lake up into the mountains in the west. The route wasn't as long as the horse route but was about a two hours walk with an ascent of about five hundred feet. They would be camping near a small waterfall on the Fox river, well below the Polo Grounds, which was being used by Orange Team that day. The weather was calm but warm, promising to get hot by mid-day. All the campers had been warned to wear hats. Danny wore a baseball cap with a NASA logo on it. Tucker, of course already had his red beret, while Sam wore her black safari hat.

Sam surprised them by pulling out a digital camera slightly smaller than a pack of cards and ordering them together for a picture. "Where's T'Keisha?" She asked, but the tall black girl had already started walking with a couple of other girls. "I'll get a shot after we set up camp. If you want to walk with her, Tuck, you can. I talked with her and explained that you're mostly a good kid."

"Thanks, Sam. I owe you."

"Big time. Tuck. You owe me so much your grandchildren will still be paying me back."

"Grandchildren? You think?" He looked ahead to the black girl.

"If not her, then someone else."

The group headed down towards the lake were Team Green was having their day of swimming. All of them were wearing something green, a hat, a head-band or a T-shirt and were being lead in a round of cheers by their counselors. Dash, Danny reflected, hadn't done much to build their team spirit. Danny wasn't much interested in the trophy that the winning team would get he didn't like being embarrassed by better organized teams.

As they passed the dinning hall they paused as a very small, stout, middle-aged woman joined the group. She was introduced as Mrs. Doi, who would be filling in for Butterfly, who remained in the hospital. Danny had never met Mr. Doi's wife before, was kind of surprised that he had a wife, or maybe it was just that he was surprised that his wife filled in around the camp when needed. Mrs. Doi was even shorter than her husband, shorter than many of the girls she would now be in charge of. She wore a dress, sensible street shoes and a large, floppy straw hat. She looked like she was going to a PTA meeting than on an over-night camping expedition. The Head Ranger had stayed with the girls over-night in Hemlock cabin and Danny had assumed she would be with them on the camp-out as well. Certainly the head ranger seemed better prepared for the rigor of the camp-out than did Mrs. Doi.

The group set off again, along the lake till they hit the trail head and marched into the chilly shadows of the woods. Most of the girls from cabin Hemlock clustered around Mrs. Doi for a while getting to know her. But gradually as the first glow of the hike wore off they peeled off into pairs and small groups walking together. Mrs. Doi kept up the pace well but gradually drifted to the back of the group until she was walking with Booger who trailed after everyone else to make sure no one got lost or left behind.

Danny was starting to sweat after a half hour of hiking and was a bit annoyed that Sam was neither sweating or even breathing hard.

"Tucker," Sam unexpectedly asked, "did you ever do that Internet search Danny asked you to do?"

"Yeah," he huffed.

"Great," Danny said, "what did you find out?"

"You would be surprise -- at how many -- newspapers still don't-- have their archives-- on-line," Tucker panted. "Or want -- you to pay to use them."

"And here I left my credit card at home..." Sam said.

"You have a credit card?" Danny said amazed.

"Hello, joking!" Sam snapped.

"But I did get -- a couple hits that were interesting. Seems there was a lawsuit in 1956 for "wrongful death" filed by the parents of a Ben Green in this county. A website on unsolved murders also mentions a Ben Green and he shows up in an F.B.I. annual crime statistics document."

"You have access to the F. B. I.?" Danny was impressed.

"Only the public web pages. Not all of it is secret, you know. Besides -- I have no desire to be caught trying to hack into their system. That's -- major bad news."

"That doesn't tell us much," Danny complained.

"It tells us that the ghost exists," Sam observed.

"We knew that already," Danny answered.

"But it is a start. If we know who he is and when he died, we can narrow in down on that. Did any of those records say how he died?"

"Naah. The court case must -- have been settled out of -- court because there's no other record -- of it. The F.B.I. page -- just says "homicide." The Unsolved Crimes site -- says death by decapitation but -- has no other details. Guys -- I've got to stop!" Tuck collapsed against the nearest tree and panted.

"Here, let me carry something," Danny offered. Not that he wanted to, his back pack was already riding pretty heavy on his back, but friends helped friends.

Tucker unlaced the flap on his pack and handed Danny a folding cot. Danny tucked it under his arm rather than try to re-pack his backpack. Tucker looked hopefully at Sam but she was deftly avoiding eye-contact and keeping her arms crossed. With a sigh, Tucker laced up his pack and swung it on it back, "Thanks, man," he told Danny and got back on the trail.

"Why are you bringing a cot, anyway?" Danny asked.

"Have you any idea how hard the ground can be? I don't plan to be walking around like an old man in the morning because the ground was too hard."

"I've seen you sleep in a booth at the Nasty Burger," Sam chuckled. "Can you really imagine that those seats are any softer than the ground? You slept through a whole pep rally on the bleachers and didn't seem to mind."

"I was very tired then. This is different."

"You mean after today's hike you won't be tired?"

"Just because we're roughing it today doesn't mean I have to--rough it. I plan to sleep in comfort!"

"Come on, let's go before Mrs. Doi beats us to the camp." Sam said, setting off on a stiff pace. Danny tried to keep up but after a moment lagged back to keep pace with Tucker, who was still puffing, even with the lighter pack. Sam slowed so they could catch up.

"Any idea where that abandoned cabin is?" she asked.

"Man, I am so lost right now." Danny said. "I think it was higher, near the waterfalls but farther away. I don't see anything today that looks like anything near the place when we saw it yesterday. Why? Did you want to go find it?"

"We've got some free time this afternoon. Most of the kids are going on a nature walk but I thought since we're so close we could maybe give it a look."

"You think the ghost was murdered at that cabin?" Tucker asked. "But that happened fifty years ago. That cabin can't be that old."

"Why not?" Sam wondered. "Look at the cabins we're in. They were built forty - fifty, maybe sixty years ago. They're obviously real old, but they were well built and have held up well. I'll bet even after fifty years this cabin is still pretty sound."

"I'm not crazy about snooping around where some crazy ghost got killed." Tucker complained.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to." Sam reminded him.

"And let you to have all the fun? No way. I'm in."

They came to a switchback on the trail. The grade here climbed so rapidly that the ground had been dug out and railroad ties dropped in place to form steps. There would be five or six steps, then a straight run for thirty or forty feet, then the trail would double back in the other direction with another five or six steps set into the ground. The trees opens up for a moment, letting in the sun blazing in a cloudless sky. The three stops to look around. They could see the lake glinting off in the distance, a dark smudge off on the horizon that might have been a near-by city. Something flashed to their right.

"Hey, there's the horse trail," Tucker pointed.

Danny could just make out what Tuck was pointing to. The sun was glinting off the polished parts of a bridle from one of the horses making the ascent to the Polo Field. Danny wasn't quite sure where on the trail the horses might be. He guessed they were about at the same spot there he had seen the cabin the day before. Trying to visualize the layout of Camp Sleepy Hollow he could kind of guess where the abandoned cabin lay in relation to where they were. He had been afraid they might not be able to find the cabin again but now he was pretty sure they could.

"Anybody got a trail mix bar?" Tucker unexpectedly asked. "I'm hungry."

Sam pulled one out of her pocket and tossed it to him. Tucker eyed it suspiciously.

"This doesn't have, like tofu or anything weird in it, does it?"

"It's trail mix! Oats, nuts, dried fruit and molasses,"

"I don't know. Oats sounds kind of weird."

"If you're not going to eat it, give it back. I was saving it for later."

"Too late," Tucker said with half the bar making a bulge in the side of his mouth.

"You've been awful quiet," Sam turned to Danny. "Something on your mind, or are you just out of breath?"

"No, I was thinking about this ghost. What we know about it and whether any of that will help us deal with it," Danny replied. "The rumor said he died fifty years again and Tuck's on-line search seems to confirm that. The rumor was that it's head was cut off, and again Tuck seems to confirm that. Tuck's search gives us a name, Ben Green. But does that help us any?"

"It means we can try a search on Ben Green and his family. Find out what kind of a person he was." Sam suggested.

"Why would someone cut off his head, though?"

"To hide his identity, maybe."

"But there still be DNA and..."

"Not fifty years ago," Tucker mumbled through his trail mix bar. "And without the head there would be no dental records. Fingerprints are only good as long as someone has already been fingerprinted. Without some identifying scar a headless body would be hard to identify."

"Tuck, you watch way too much 'CSI', " Danny said.

"But he has a point," Sam said.

"But how does any of this help us defeat this ghost?" Danny wondered.

"Well, you can get Jazz to search on his name, and maybe we'll find some other clue when we explore that cabin today." Sam said.

"I did bring a Fenton Thermos with me," Danny said. "I've gotten to where I don't leave home without one. But I wish I had brought some other stuff as well. Ghost deflectors for you guys. Maybe the Fenton Bazooka or the jack-o'-nine-tails. Wait-- what did Abby say about poltergeists?"

"That she thought this was a 'classic poltergeist'?" Sam answered.

"Right. Jazz is all into ghost psychology. Maybe there's something about this poltergeist thing in one of her books, some weakness we can use against it."

They hiked in silence for another five-ten minutes.

"You know, Danny," Sam began, "there's something else I've been kind of noticing but it doesn't make any sense."

"What's that?"

"Did you notice how this morning when the Head Ranger was introducing Mrs Doi? She said Butterfly was in the hospital but didn't say why. And the girls were talking about it but they all seem to think she had a nervous breakdown or something. No one seems to remember the ghost that attacked her last night."

"Abigail did," Tucker mentioned.

"She remembers seeing Danny. She doesn't remember the other ghost. No one does. It's like the ghost doesn't exist. It does, but it doesn't"

Danny thought about that. "When I spoke with Mr. Doi he knew of the ghost but didn't want to talk about it. I sort of thought he was just being defensive of his employer, the way so many adults are. Then the cook mentioned the ghost but didn't remember it ever doing anything harmful. You're right, Sam, there is something weird going on here."

"But we remember the ghost." Tucker said

"Yeah, that's weird," Danny said. "I wonder why?"

"Maybe because we were expecting a ghost," Sam suggested. She would have said more but just then the trail opened up into the campground. Tucker and Danny collapsed on the ground, too exhausted to go on. Quite few others were sitting down, too. They looked up just in time to see Sam pointing her camera at them. "Say Nasty Burger," she called. Danny was tempted to tell her something a lot ruder.


	6. She's Not My Girlfriend

_The world laughs at you behind your back, just like in high school- Free Dan Phantom_

The campground was a small, gravelly meadow sloping towards the east. The waterfall, some distance off, could be heard faintly. The ground had been rudely terraced into flat spaces where the tents could be erected. A small shed at one corner of the meadow was open and campers lined up to get their tents. These were monestrous old canvas things, likely army surplus. Danny and Tucker grabbed one and hauled it over to where the rest of their cabin mates were setting up tents. The tent was dark green and smelled of mold and mothballs. There were no instructions for putting it up and Dash didn't seem to be having much luck with his tent either. There were eight three foot lengths of pole each with a peg on one end and a hole on the other. Apparently two of these poles were struck one on top of the other to form the center poles. An eyelet in the canvas slipped over the peg at the top of the pole. A stake was pounded in the ground about six from the pole and a rope pulled the canvas taut. The other four poles went on the corners of the tent to form a low side wall. Ropes to stakes also pulled these poles taut. Canvas flaps hung down in the front and back to curtain off the tent. By the time they were done wrestling the tent into place it was already stifling under the heavy canvas. The whole tent was only about four feet wide and six feet long.

Danny went to get a drink from the canteen truck that had driven in from one of the service roads. When he got back he found Tucker grumpily looking at his unfolded cot. The cot was too high to fit anywhere in the tent except directly under the center line. If pushed up against the knee wall of the tent the ceiling would have been hanging directly on top the sleeper.

"I am not sleeping under that!" Danny said. "It doesn't even look safe for you to sleep on top of it."

"Hey, look," Danny continued when it was obvious that Tucker wasn't going to respond, "maybe it will be pleasant enough tonight and you can sleep outside, under the stars."

"And be eaten alive by mosquitoes?"

"It's your choice. I --at least-- thought to bring an air mattress!" Danny dug out a small vinyl roll and a miniature bicycle pump. He unrolled the mattress and started pumping. After ten minutes he looked at the still limp mattress and groaned.

"What's up?" Tucker asked.

"I've got an air leak in my mattress."

"Didn't you bring a patch kit?"

Danny held up an old flat metal tube. Glue had oozed all around its top and hardened into a gloppy mass. "I guess we're both going to be sleeping on the ground tonight."

"Uh oh."

"What?" Danny asked.

"I can't remember how to fold this cot back up!"

They threw their stuff inside the tent and lashed the flaps shut, then off to find Sam.

Her tent wasn't had to find. On another terrace amid the other Cabin Hemlock tents was a black nylon balloon tent. Springy fiberglass poles stretched around the sides holding the slippery thin material up. Sam and the other Goth girl, Danny realized he hadn't been introduced to here, were sitting under the awning made by the tent's door's rain cover, chatting.

"Hey, guys," Sam called. "Say did you meet Atherial?" She held out a multi-ringed hand in greeting. "We were wondering how long it would take for you to get your tent up."

"Where did this one come from? Do they have any more?" Tucker wondered.

"I brought my own," Sam admitted. It only weights five pounds folded up and takes less then ten minutes to put up."

"Wow. Does it come with running water?"

As a group they moved towards the canteen wagon, meeting T'Keisha on the way. Lunch was sloppy joes and potato salad, except for Sam who was presented with a small container of humus and some pita bread. They found a shady spot and sat down to eat. Although Tucker and T'Keisha and Sam and Atherial spent more of their time talking to each other, it felt good to at least be a welcome part of both.

After lunch the counselors got everyone together and talked about the upcoming camp Olympics and organized practice games for everyone. The egg-toss was embarrassing as Danny took an egg in the face on the first row. Danny felt a little better during the three-legged race watching Tucker and T'Keisha flop around the course. T'Keisha's legs were so much longer than her partner's, she virtually dragged him around the course. Danny's laugh only lasted until Sam grabbed him for her partner and ended up dragging him around the course as well. As they knelt to untie the ropes around their legs Sam whispered, "How is it you can kick Vlad's butt any time you want but you can't run a simple race?"

They had barely caught their breath from that before they were organized into teams to practice passing the baton in relay races. Considering how many batons were dropped Danny felt pretty good about not dropping his, even if his running wasn't among the fastest. He and Tucker were flopped on the ground after their dashes watching the girls. T'keisha was burning up the track with her long legs but the next girl in the relay took off running early and despite T'keisha's best efforts she could not get close enough to hand over the baton. She throw the baton down and started chewing out the other girl. Somehow Danny was not surprised that the other girl was Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde.

"What are the odds we'll see a cat-fight?" Tucker asked.

"Here comes Mrs. Doi," Danny answered.

"Who do you think would win? I think T'keisha could kick her butt. I'm mean she's all athletic and everything."

"T'keisha could kick your butt!" Danny said. "Little Miss Girl-in-White is about as much of a challenge to her as -- oh, the Box Ghost is to me."

"Yeah...she could kick my butt anytime..." Tucker mused.

"If you need any help with that butt kicking, I'm available evenings and weekends," Sam interrupted, squatting down beside her friends. "I can see you two are majorly disappointed that nothing is going to happen. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Miss Farley-yadda-yagga with a black eye."

Seeing Danny stare in surprise at her, Sam quickly added. "I'm a vegetarian, not a pacifist."

Mrs. Doi seemed unable to resolve the two girl's issue. Eventually Dash came over and just ordered the girls to separate.

Potato sack race training didn't go well. Dash. for all his letterman jacket, didn't seemed able to coordinate both legs into a simple hopping gait. Finally, in disgust he ordered everyone to line up for tug-of-war. The group was divided into evenly matched groups of boys and girls and practiced how to plant their feet and tug in a coordinated manner.

Dash had just announced practice was over when Mrs. Doi called out that the girls didn't think the boys had been pulling their weight in the tug-of-war, and challenged them to a boys versus girls contest. Danny could see that some of the girls were as confused by this as he was. Dash shrugged his shoulders and cracked that maybe the girls ought to play over a mud puddle if they were so confident of winning. Mrs. Doi agreed but observed there were no mud puddles available and objected to dumping the camp's drinking water on the ground to make one.

"Alright, loser does KP tonight," Dash said.

Mrs. Doi gathers the girls together for a moment, then they took their positions along the rope. The boys picked up their end of the rope amid sneers and jeers.

The instant Dash blew his whistle to start the contest the boys gave a mighty jerk on the line. The girls in turn dropped the rope. The boys smashed into a heap on the ground. As they were slowly getting to their feet the girls picked up the rope and pulled it across their line. With a roll of his eyes Dash blew the whistle and declared the girls the winners.

"You know, for an old lady," Tucker observed, "she's got an evil mind."

After that Dash organized a soccer game for those who wanted to play. Mrs. Doi announced she would take a group on a nature hike, while still others just wanders down the well marked trail to the waterfall. Danny motioned for Sam and Tuck to join him with Mrs. Doi's group. "I'm not to big on this whole nature thing," Tucker was saying, "Outside of knowing how to avoid poison ivy I'll willing to give the whole thing a pass."

"Yeah, what's the deal," Sam asked Danny. "You've not a big fan of flora and fauna, either."

"We're going to look into that abandoned camp site," Danny explained. "If I've got my geography right its up over that way." He pointed slightly north of the trail Mrs. Doi was leading her group along. "Somewhere along here is an old trail leading to that camp. We find it and 'accidently' get separated from the group. We give the camp the once over and get back before supper."

"That's sounds simple enough" Tucker said.

"I know, too simple. Something is sure to go wrong." Sam retorted.

"What could possible go wrong?" Danny asked.

Danny was surprised to find himself more interested in Mrs. Doi walking lecture than he expected. Besides showing kids the wild Treeus Squirrelus, Mrs. Doi pointed to a soaring red eagle and how to distinguish it from the more common turkey buzzard. She could name any tree they came to and knew some interesting fact about them. That some ants collected pine sap to use as a disinfectant, and those that got trapped in the sap would become fossilized in what would become amber. That certain pine trees needed a forest fire to release their seeds. Most awesome of all was when she pointed to some imprints on the ground and announced that they were deer tracks. Danny's contact with the wild was largely limited to trips to the zoo and the occasional stray dog. The idea that an animal as large or larger than himself had just wandered by a hour ago or maybe even only five minutes ago was amazing. That someone could just look at the ground and say that deer had been here was almost superhuman.

It was almost with some disappointment that Tucker pointed through the leafy growth along the side of the trail to what was clearly another trail, now well overgrown with brush that split off from the trail they were one. Danny, looking around trying to match up the mountains in the background with the mountains he had seen around the abandoned campsite, agreed that this must be the right trail.

Danny stooped, pretending to retie his shoe while the other campers marched on by. They were just parting the branches to duck into the abandoned trail when someone spoke up behind them:

"Ditching Mrs. Doi's talk?"

They spun about and found Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde standing there, oversized backpack on her shoulders. She was wearing white shorts and a T-shirt, somewhat sweat stained under the arms. Her reddish hair was plastered on her forehead. Though she tried not to look like she had been running, clearing she had been trying hard to catch up with Danny, Sam and Tucker.

"Looking for the abandoned campsite?" she asked.

"No!" Danny instinctively denied.

"How do you know about the campsite?" Tucker asked, somewhat ruining the moment.

Abigail smirked. "I've got a map!"

"Where did you get a map?" Sam demanded.

"Had it faxed to me." Abigail said, waving a sheet a paper in the air. Tucker snatched it out of her hand and exclaimed with surprise, "This is a C.I.A. map!" One corner of the map had a small "CIA, 1951" printed on it. "Dude! You broke into the CIA's computer? You are so in trouble."

"Nah, I used my father's account. They have cooperative data sharing. It's all legit."

"You hacked your father's own computer!" Tucker said. "That can't be good."

"Oh, it was nothing. He uses a lousy password."

"Abigail?" Danny questioned.

"How did you - no, it wasn't 'Abigail!' "

"Bet it was," Tucker said.

Abigail scowled at him then stepped through the brush into the abandoned trail. "It's a couple miles up this road so we'd better hurry it we want to have a to look around before we have to get back to camp."

"No one invited you alone," Sam said crossly.

"But I've got the map."

"We already found it without you!"

"Ah -- look -- ah -- since we are all here now -- ah -- I guess we'll just have to do this together." Danny said. "It's not we'll have another time to do this."

"Fine," snapped Sam, "let's get this over with." She turned and stomped down the trail. Tucker looked at Danny questioningly, then hurried to catch up with Sam.

In the silent that bore in after they left Danny turned to Abigail and asked "Why are you here. Really? You said there were no ghosts here so why are you out ghost hunting? Why are you following me?"

"Obviously after last night's poltergeist experience I was wrong about there being no ghosts at Sleepy Hollow." Abigail said. They were walking down the overgrown trail now. Though there was the occasional low branch to push aside the trail was remarkably clear. Scruffing through the leaf mold on the ground Danny would kick up bits of old cinders, a thick layer of which had kept the forest from completely obliterating the path. "Weirdly the Guys in White site has no records of ghosts at this camp, so something is screwy about that. As for why I'm following you, it's not because of your good looks, if that what you're thinking."

Danny snorted.

"I figured that as the son of the great Jack Fenton, if anyone at this camp knew where this ghost is at it would be you."

"So how did you know to download that map?"

" 'Elementary, My dear Watson.' An abandoned campsite just cries out as the location for a haunting,"

"Mmph" Danny grunted. "Don't they have camps for Junior Guys in White or Girls in White or whatever?"

"I am not a Junior GIW and my father's occupation is strictly classified."

"If you don't want people to think your father's a Guy in White why do you always dress in white?"

"What's wrong with the way I'm dressed?"

Dimly Danny sensed that he was deep trouble. Not knowing why he proceeded to step in deeper. "I don't know, you just looked pretty in that green swim suit yesterday."

"What's that supposed to mean? You only like me when I'm half-naked? I bet you were one of the guys lined up last night to spy on us! You're a perv Danny Fenton, a real sick perv!"

"Hey, keep it down, people will hear! That's not what I mean."

"Then what did you mean. You don't like my bikini? You don't like looking at girls? Why am I even talking to you?" Abigail stormed ahead.

"Right about now I think I'd rather be fighting Technus. He talk your arm off but at least everything he said made sense. "Girls, do they ever become more understandable?"

He ran to catch up with Abigail. "Look all I meant was that wearing white all the time sort of says "I'm a Guy in White."

"Girl"

"What?"

"I'm a girl, not a man."

"But aren't female agents of the Guys in White still called Guys in white? And that thing about your bathing suit...It wasn't white and you sort of looked natural in it. But when you wear white, like this you look kind of bleached out, all red in the face."

"What about last night? What you were doing when all that happened?"

"I was trying to get Tuck back to the cabin before he got caught."

"So he was in line."

"Tucker was but I wasn't. Look there was some weird stuff going on last night. Look at how Tucker and that black girl, T'Keisha are getting on. Now why would he do something to hurt that? He's not that kind of guy. And Butterfly really went nuts. I don't think she's the kind of person who goes all crazy like that. I think the ghost, the poltergeist or whatever had something to do with it."

"So you're saying I should wear my bikini all the time because I look better in it?"

"What!"

"I'm teasing. I'm teasing. I get it, white -- unflattering. I do have non-white clothes in my wardrobe, if that will make you happy."

"How much farther to the camp?" Danny muttered.

"There you are!" Sam called some a short distance ahead. "Done making out with your girlfriend?"

"She'sHe's not my girlboyfriend!" Danny and Abigail protested in unison.

Even after fifty years the clearing was recognizable. Though trees were encroaching around the edges, the center was still relative clear. A circle of stones in the center, mostly buried in grasses now, defined the old fire pit. Three cabins were spread around the clearing. Paint-free and bleached a cardboard gray, they were surprising well intact. They were exactly like the cabins still in use down close to the lake: plain, boxy shapes mounted on short fieldstone pilings, with a pair a windows on each side wall, a porch across the front, chimney on the back wall, low gabled roof shingled with cedar shakes though most of the shingles had disappeared over time leaving the pine planking behind. The steps leading to the porch were fieldstone set in cement. They looked studier than the rest of the building. One building leaned dangerously to the left. A fourth, indicated mostly by the remaining fieldstone chimney had collapsed entirely. Like the site Danny's group had camped out, the clearing opened out into a wide view of the valley below. The view was spectacular. Bare stone rose for a twenty or thirty feet behind the cabins before disappearing in more forest. It had to have been something pretty extreme for such a lovely campsite to have been abandoned.

Tucker was gingerly prowling around the outsides of the cabins. Abigail, after fishing something out of her backpack had joined him. Danny was about to do the same when steely talons seized his shirt and dragged him back.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sam hissed.

"Huh?"

"Making out with her! She's the enemy, Danny."

"Sam, what are you going on about?"

"You're trying to date a girl who wants to kill you. Do you have some kind of death wish or something? This is like Valerie all over again!"

"This is nothing like Valerie..."

"It's exactly like Valerie, Danny!" Sam insisted. "She's a Girl in White..."

"That's her father, she's nothing like that."

"Danny, she dresses all in white and that's a Fenton Ghost Finder in her hand. Don't tell me she's not like her old man."

Danny squinted. It was hard to tell just what it was she was waving around, except that it did look like a Fenton Finder. He gulped and hoped it was still damaged enough to not pick him up.

Valerie had been a snooty rich girl in his class whose father ran a security consulting firm. His firm had gone bankrupt when a giant ghost dog, Cujo, had destroyed the facility Valerie's father had been hired to protect. Valerie blamed her sudden lose of wealth and prestige on Danny Phantom even though Danny had been trying to drag the huge dog back into the Ghost Zone. She somehow acquired a treasure load of high tech ghost fighting devices including a flying jetboard and took to sending all her free time, not that there was much of that since she was reducing to working two part-time jobs to help make ends meet, trying to kill Danny. Danny could have dealt with that, since there were lots of ghosts already trying to kill him, but a horrid health class project had forced them to work together and they had become friends. They even dated for a time despite Valerie stilling trying to kill him at night.

In hindsight it was easy to see that dating Valerie was a bad idea, a very bad idea, but in the moment it had seemed like exactly the right thing to do. It felt really nice to have a girlfriend. It felt almost better than life itself. It had hurt to discover that one of his enemies had been pushing them into that relationship, hurt to realize that he had been so desperate, so needy for something he didn't even realize he wanted at the time. Danny hated that Sam was throwing Valerie in his face like this, not because she was wrong, but because she was probably right.

Sam was still going on as Danny reflected, "...Get your eyes out of the clouds and think! The minute she finds out you're a ghost she'll have you stuff and mounted in some government lab."

"I'm not trying to date her!" Danny responded angrily. " I don't like her and I didn't invite her here. If you had some idea of how to get rid of her you should have brought it up before we got here!" Danny paused, took a breath and tried to calm himself. "Sam, what's got into you? It's almost like your jealous or something."

"Jealous? Of what? -- Danny. I'm your friend and all I'm saying is that you've got a secret, a big secret that could get you killed if people found out. You've got to be careful who you hang around with. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself."

"Do," Sam said, turning away and walking off a ways towards the edge of the clearing. Faintly Danny could hear her continue, "because I hate going to funerals"

Danny joined Tucker and Abigail. Abigail was waving the Fenton Finder around but it didn't seem to be registering anything, or rather it emitted the same low buzz no matter where she pointed it, even at Danny. At first that was a relief for Danny but them he got wondering what it was picking up if it wasn't picking up him.

"Weird," she grumbled as she shut down the machine and put it in her backpack. She pulled out a cannister of Fenton Specter-Off and began spraying her arms and legs with it. Overspray drifted his way causing his skin to contract in unpleasant shudders. Just standing close to her was making him feel ill. His mother had invented the spray-on ghost repellent and true to form it was much more effective than anything his father built. It was because he was only half-ghost that he wasn't running screaming from the place.

"From the way that Fenton Finder was acting," Abigail said, "you would almost think the camp ghost was all around us."

"Yeah, most ghost are very localized anthropomorphic manifestions."

"Really?" Abigail asked, looking at him suspiciously. "And just how many ghosts have you seen?"

"That was just in some notes Danny's father wrote up once," Tucker slide in while Danny was still stammering. "Mister Fenton is very diligent about keeping us away from any ghosts or spectral dangers." Tucker flashed her a guileless smile.

"Yeah," that's what my Dad's reports say, too. Anthro -- whatever. It's almost like they're beings from another dimension instead of spiritual energy. So, are we going to go into one of these cabins? They may be some clue to the ghosts location or identity there."

"May as well, there doesn't seem like there's anything out here that looks like a clue." Tucker said. "Say, why is Sam pouting over there?"

Danny shrugged his shoulders.

"Hey, Sam," Tucker called, "We're going in, come along!" Sam Manson slowly joined them. They mounted the stone steps of the left most cabin. It seemed most intact, least likely to collapse on them while they were inside. At the door Danny held them back and said "I'll go first."

He knew that if the ghost was inside he was the only one who could fight it, but would have to 'Go Ghost' to do so. He didn't want Abigail to see that,

The door was closed but not locked. He half closed it behind him. The cabin was bare, simple and stark. It was about 24 by 36 feet in size, a single room lacking any furnishing except the stone fireplace at the far end and small piles of leaves in the corners where wind from the broken windows had swept them. Yet the instant he had crossed the threshold there had come a sense of ominous dread.

He looked around the floor at his feet, turned around and looked behind him. There was nothing to see, yet the sense of dread remained. He noticed that his breath had turned to blue smoke. Clearly a ghost was here, but where...

Danny looked up towards the ceiling. Like the cabins down below there was no ceiling, just the exposed stringers running from side to side turning the rafters into load-bearing triangles. Through the stringers he could see to the rafters and planking the covered the roof. It seemed oddly clean after fifty years of abandonment.

Danny looked back down, toward the fireplace, then gasped. Hanging in the middle of the roof, hanging from a stringer that a moment before had been bare was a very real and distinct rope noose. It swayed back and forth slowly as if supporting a heavy weight. Icy fingers crawled up and down Danny's spine. He slowly backed out of the cabin.

"What did you see?" Tucker demanded as soon as he back on the porch.

"Don't go in," was all Danny could say. "It's... it's...it's..."

"Faugh!" Abigail snorted and pushed open the door. She stepped through and for a heart-beat of two all was quiet. Then she screamed, loud, shrill, endlessly until there was no more breath for screaming.

Her screams galvanized Danny. With a shake he turned into Danny Phantom and flew through the door. He saw Abigail kneeling on the floor, screaming silently, the noose swaying above her. Great, burning eyes stared at her through the circle of the noose and winds were starting to kick up the trash in the room. Danny grabbed Abigail and flew up through the roof. He landed at the start of the trail and set her down. She was staring with unblinking eyes at some unseen horror.

He turned back to see Tucker and Sam entering the cabin.

"No!" he screamed and rocketed through the air to stop them. He burst through the door, physically this time as it had swung shut to keep him out. The crashing door knocked Sam off her feet and sent Tuckering spinning into a corner. Danny had a huge glob of ectoplasmic energy to fire at whatever ghost was there but found himself frozen by the sight of a body swinging from the noose. The body of a young man, of about his age, dressed in old fashioned clothes, feet hanging freely several inches off the floor. A ghostly chair lay overturned on the floor behind the apparition. But the was no head, only fiercely burning eyes where a head should be.

"Go away!" Danny finally screamed, hurling the ball of ectoplasm at the headless horror. The glowing energy seemed to splatter on the ghost causing it to waver like looking at a distant object through the shimmer of heat waves. Danny fired some more bolts of energy, seeming to score direct hits but not affecting the specter in any way. He turned and grabbed Sam who was climbing to her feet, flew towards Tucker, grabbed his hand and dematerialized them through the wall of the cabin.

He flew back to the trail head where he had left Abigail. As he sat Sam and Tuck down he realized that Abigail was no longer there, just her backpack. He didn't have time to worry about that. Danny flew back to the cabin ready to once again battle the camp ghost. But even as he barraged through the door he sensed that the ghost had gone away as suddenly as it had appeared. He flew up through the roof and circled high over the cabin but could not detect any presence of the ghost. Spiraling around the ground in ever wider loops he did spy Abigail's white-ckad form crashing through the undergrowth as she ran down the trail back to their camp. At least she was safe, he thought.

Danny flew back to his friends who were warily looking around for any sign of trouble. Sam's normally Goth-pale face looked like glossy white paper, Tucker's brown skin looked a sickly yellow.

"Are you guys all right?" he asked as he lit beside them and changed back to Danny Fenton.

"...And I thought Fright Knight was scary," Sam grumbled. "Where's little Miss I'm-not-ghost-hunter?"

"It's not funny. I caught a glimpse of her running back to camp. I think we can assume that the Guys in White will be here by nightfall. But what about you, are you guys all right?"

"I got hit by a door, thank you very much." Sam said. "I'm sorry Danny, I shouldn't snapped. Thanks for getting us out of there. It's just that -- man, that door hurt. But other than that I seem to be fine. What about you, Tucker?"

Tucker was looking at his hands. "My hands are shaking," he said quietly. "Their was literally shaking. I didn't think that really happened... oh, I gotta sit down."

Danny caught his friend as he fell and eased him to the ground. Tucker sat there with his head between his knees. After a bit he said, "I don't think anything happened to us. There was just this great sense of fear and horror and stuff."

"What did you see?" Danny asked.

"What did you see?" Tuck replied.

"You first."

"All I can remember is seeing a pair of great big eyes," Sam volunteered. "They were glowing with unimaginable hate."

"Anything else? An arm, a leg, a piece of clothing?" Danny prompted

"No, just the eyes. Tucker, what about you?"

"I saw the eyes, alright. They kind of like swallowed you up. But I thought I saw a chair or a table or maybe it was an iPod behind the eyes. But it's all kind of vague now."

"An iPod?" Sam wondered.

"It was a thing. I remember were was a 'thing' behind the eyes but that's all." A note of consternation crossed Tucker's eyes and he quickly felt through all his pockets before pulling out his PDA. "Oh, thank god," he breathed. "It wasn't you I saw in that room." He hugged it to his face in a manner that would have been creepy if his friends weren't so used to it.

"So what did you see?" Sam demanded.

"I saw -- the eyes. But they were in the middle of a ghostly noose hanging from the rafters in the middle of the room. That's when I backed out of the cabin."

"A suicide?"

"I'm thinking." Danny agreed. When I went in to get Abigail the ghost had materialized to a full body, hanging from the noose -- but there was no head! Just the flaming eyes. When I came to get you two it seemed a little more solid and my best energy blasts were like lobbing marshmallows at it. And then it was gone. It's like on Monday. It gave me the more horrendous fright and seemed invulnerable to my blasts and then suddenly it's gone and it's like it was never there."

"If we're going to fight this thing and have any chance of beating it we're going to have to know a lot more about it," Sam said. "Danny, you may have to talk to your father..."

"I think I'd rather let the Guys in White sort it out."

"He's got a point, Tucker chipped in. "Since The G.I.W. are going to be here anyway let's let them take care of this. I mean your Dad means well and I don't mean this disrespectfully, but I was kind of hoping this would be a vacation from your parents as well."

"I think it's a big mistake not calling in your dad but we can always save that for in case the Guys In White can't do anything."

"Yeah, let's call that the nuclear option," Tucker said.

"We'd better get back to camp."

When they got back to the camp Danny waited until Sam had left before he sought out Abigail's tent to return her backpack. He found her laying on her bedroll in her tent, staring fixedly into the darkness.

"Hey, how're you doing?" Danny asked. "You dropped this. I thought I'd bring it back." He held up her backpack.

"Hey, where did you get that," she cried out in alarm. "That's mine; give it to me."

"Yeah, sure." Danny answered, confused.. "I was bringing it to you... Don't you remember us going to that abandoned campsite this afternoon?"

She looked at him blankly for a moment, then said: "Oh, yeah, that old place."

"We saw the ghost there, remember? You had a panic attack or something and -- ah -- left early, and forgot your backpack..."

"There was no ghost there."

"Of course there was. It was hanging from a noose in the middle of the cabin. It had great big, glowing eyes. You screamed like I'd never heard before. Don't you remember that? You screamed so loud I'm surprised you can talk now. Don't you remember anything?"

She looked at him like he was crazy. But slowly her brows furled "I remember ...eyes..." she whispered. "They were very scary, I think. Yeah, they must have been that Danny Phantom guy who attacked Butterfly last night."

"I thought he was the one trying to save Butterfly from the camp ghost."

"There is no camp ghost."

"Abigail you saw it today! We were all there. We all saw it."

"Fenton, you're as crazy as your father."

"Leave my father out of this!" Danny snapped. What about your father, are you calling him in?"

"Why should I?"

"Because of the camp ghost."

"There's no camp ghost."

"Abigail. You were there. It attacked you. How can you forget that?" When she continued to look at him blankly he added, "The eyes, remember the eyes"

She frowned. "The eyes... They were...cold...scary..."

"Then you remember the eyes?" Danny asked hopefully.

She looked up and shook her head. "Thanks for bringing my knapsack back, but you'll excuse me, I want to get a little nap before supper." She turned away and pulled a blanket over her head.


	7. One Sneaky Old Lady

_Like is hilariously cruel. - Bender (Futurama)_

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

Night fell over the camp slowly as the sun moved below the top of the ridge. The sky still glowed a bright orange putting everything in a long, gradual twilight. A cool breeze came over the ridge, moving down into the valley. Danny was leaning against a rock near the waterfall, resting. It had been a long and event-filled day and frankly he was glad to see the end of it. From where he sat he could see down into the valley where the rest of the camp lay. It was already pretty dark down there. Various light shone about the lower camp, pinpricks of intensity in the growing darkness. Closer to the waterfall some boys were trying to dare some girls to go skinny-dipping with them. The girls, though, were having nothing to do with the idea. Danny couldn't understand why the boys even tried since the councilors would be down soon to round up everybody. They were sure to be caught if they actually did it. Danny was a great believer in not getting caught.

Danny was surprised that for once he was anxious for camp to be over. Normally he looked forward to camp as a way to great away from the weirdness of his parents. He loved them dearly but they were always embarrassing him in one way or another. He often wondered what it would be like having normal parents, like Sam -- except that Sam's parents weren't really normal, and Tucker's parents were obsessed with their stock portfolio, Paulina's parents were just incredibly snooty, and Valerie's parents...Danny shook his head. Did anybody have normal parents?

But for once he found himself longing for the "normalcy" of his crazy parents over all the craziness at camp. A ghost that oozes evil, Sam getting all weird about Abigail, and Abigail getting all weird about the ghost, and hanging around him and slamming his parents. Maybe the real problem was that in other years he hadn't been a half-ghost, wasn't sensitive to ghosts haunting an area and didn't have to worry about someone catching him turning into Danny Phantom. At home he at least had a better idea of where and when he could go ghost and not get caught.

Danny was falling asleep leaning against the rock when he heard someone ask, "Hey, Fenton, you in?"

"In on what?" he asked. He recognized a boy from the other cabin, Oak -- Stan or something like that.

"We organizing a panty raid on the girl's tents later tonight. You gonna join us?"

"Won't you get caught?"

"Nah, we're gonna wear masks and it will be over so fast the girls won't know what hit them."

"I don't know. I think you're asking for trouble."

"No," the other boy said. "Nothing will go wrong. We'll have a little bit of fun scaring the girls and if we're lucky maybe cop a couple of their panties for souvenirs. What do you say?"

"I don't know..." Danny demurred.

"No panty raid!" Dash's voice shouted behind them. "No! I've got into enough trouble already. One more incident like last night and I'll get kicked out of camp. I need this job, it's community service I can put on my college athletic scholarship application. So no one is going to screw up for me."

"Oh, come on," the other boy protested. "The peepshow was your idea, why can't we have our fun?"

"Because I'll get blamed for it. The Head Ranger has been on my butt all summer. She'd never believe me if I told her I didn't do it. So get it through your thick head,, no more pranks!"

"Alright, OK, let me go, you're hurting my arm."

Dash lowed down and saw that he had grabbed the other boys arm and was twisting it fiercely in a direction it wasn't meant to go. He let go. "No pranks!" he repeated, "now get to camp, it's lights out! You, too, Fentonini!"

Back at the tent Danny told Tucker about the impending Panty raid,

"Do you think we ought to tell Sam?" Tucker asked.

"If she knew we knew then she'd blame us for letting it happen."

"So you're going to let some boys go rummaging through her clothes?"

"Tuck, I tried to do the right thing last night and only ended up getting in more trouble. Tonight I'm staying out of it.

About two hours later they could here a rustling among the Oak Leaves tents as the boys there got ready for their raid. Danny hadn't been sleeping because of the hard ground under his sleeping bag got up and stood by the opening of their tent trying to see what was going on.

"Back in your tent, Fenton," Dash called out. He was patrolling their handful of tents making sure that no one from their cabin participated. Danny ignored the jock and continued squinting through the darkness to see what was happening.

About a half dozen boys from the other terrace where Oak Leaves had set up their tents were sneaking up a trail at the far end of the clearing to where the Sumac girls had pitched their tents. The boys seemed to be making a lot of noise for a sneak raid.

Danny could see them begin to infiltrate among the Sumac tents. He expected to hear some outburst ant any moment. Suddenly a whistle blew shrilly in the dark. A short stocky woman stepped into the clear holding something in her hand. Her hand swung back and flung whatever it was at the lead boy. Mrs Doi's voice rang out. "Get 'em ladies!" The thing she flung struck with a wet, smacking glop. From around the tents the girls of Sumac piled out, each holding something in either hand. In a instant the air was filled with flying globes, the splat and sputter of struck boys.

The raid collapsed almost as fast was it had happened. Boys were running every which way to evade the pursuing girls armed with what appeared to be an endless supply of water balloons. One sailed close over head. He ducked then called out, "Hey, watch it!" As he stuck he head back over the top of the tent he could see a girl in a pair of combat running away. He didn't need to hear her laughter to know. There was only one pair of combat boots in the camp.

As the last of the boys ran into the woods for safety the girls gave up a cheer that woke up the rest of the camp. "Two, Four Six, Eight Sumac Cabin girl's are great!" they chanted. "Oak Leaf Boys are dirty, wet snakes!"

After a few more chants Mrs Doi hustled her girls back to their tents. Dash and Porcipine were out helping Booger find the missing panty raiders. Danny finally ducked under the tent flap and crawled back into his sleeping bag.

"Is it safe?" Tucker asked from under the cot he couldn't figure out how to fold back up.

"Yeah. Just watch out for Sam, I think she still has a few water balloons."

Morning came all too soon, cold and damp. The sun was shining brightly in the East and if one could find a space to sit in its light things weren't too bad. Danny was wrapped in his blanket for warmth. A plate of eggs, bacon and toast on his lap. At his feet was a paper container of orange juice. What he wanted was a couple more hours of sleep and maybe a double Nasty Burger with hot, crispy fries.

A voice intruded on his thoughts.

"I remember."

Danny looked and found Abigail sitting next to him. "Huh?" He grunted in confused response.

"I had a nightmare last night," she said, setting her juice down by her feet and spreading out a napkin over her lap. "It was the worst nightmare I've ever had. I woke covered in sweat — I mean literally wet. I didn't think stuff like that ever happened." She took a bite out of her toast, chewed for a moment, then continued.

"I dreamed about a pair huge scary eyes. I couldn't bear to look at them but I couldn't look away. It was like I had turned to stone. It seemed to go on forever." She took another bite of toast. "Then I noticed that there was a body beside the eyes, hanging in the air, swaying all gruesome like. I wanted to scream but I couldn't. Up till then it seemed like an ordinary nightmare..."

"I didn't know that nightmares could be ordinary," Danny said despite himself. He had had enough of Abigail the day before and was determined to say nothing so she'd leave as quickly as possible.

"Well..." Abigail stammer, throwing off the track by Danny's unexpected question. "I mean...dread, paralysis...Those are kind of normal for a nightmare. But...But I suddenly realized that while there was a body hanging on the air and those flaming eyes, there was no head. And somehow that was worse than everything else. Then I guess I did scream or something and woke up, shivering and covered in sweat. But I then I remembered. That wasn't really a dream. It was what I'd seem in the cabin — wasn't it?"

"That what I saw."

"How did I get out of the cabin? What happened to the ghost?"

"You don't remember?"

"I feel like maybe I was flying through the air and there was that green-eyes monster carrying me. And I remember running through the forest, smacking into trees, tripping over roots and not being able to stop. I think that green-eyes monster was trying to abduct me, I got free and he chased me back to camp — but it's all so confused. What happened to you guys?"

Danny wasn't sure what to tell her. She was blaming him for what he had rescued her from. He wanted to clear his name without tipping her off that he was Danny Phantom. He tore off a corner of his toast, dipped in his yolk and chewed thoughtfully. "We, uh, heard you scream. I went back in and saw you on the floor and that ghost thing hovering over you." Danny said. "I grabbed you by the arm and pulled you out. Then we just sort of all ran. I guess we lost track of you in the woods. I don't know if the ghost followed us or not. I was too busy running." He hoped that Abigail would not think to ask Tuck or Sam for their versions in case they didn't match up.

"It's weird," Abigail said. "Yesterday I was telling you how people tended to forget about the ghost. And then it happened to me. I absolutely could not remember seeing it at all. Total denial. It was like I was being overshadowed or something. If you hadn't questioned me last night, tried to force me to remember I don't think I would have remembered at all."

"I didn't mean for you to have a nightmare," Danny said, sincerely.

"My skin still crawls when I think about, but I would rather know then have something like that suppressed for the rest of my life. God — How can they expect us to eat something swimming in so much grease," she said pointing to her eggs.

"I'm assured that they were cooked in trans-fat free vegetable oil."

"That's supposed to mean their healthy to eat?"

"I don't know about that."

"Well you don't seem to have a problem eat them. Want mine?"

Danny looked down and found that his plate was already scrapped clean. He looked over at Abigail's plate. Two yellow eyed eggs stared back at him. Grease was pooling around the edges. "Those are nasty. I think I've lost my appetite."

"Ok." Abigail started picking up her stuff.

"Wait!" Danny said. "After you remember about the ghost, did you call in your father?"

"My dad?"

"You know, the Men without Fashion Sense."

"No! I'm not going to call in Dad. I can handle this. I've got lots of stuff that will work in a situation like this. I came here for a vacation and — damnit — I'm going to have a vacation." She stood up and turned towards the dumpster, then turned back. "But you ought to call your father and find out more about this type of ghost."

"I'm on vacation, too." Danny grumphed.

Abigail wasn't gone for more than a minute when Sam suddenly plopped herself down. "Consorting with the enemy again, I see."

"Is that why you threw a water balloon at me last night?"

"Danny, how could you accuse me of a thing like that? If I had meant to hit you, you know I would have."

"Well, if you were trying to be anonymous you should go around wearing those combat boots!"

"Aren't we in a good mood this morning..."

"So what kind of a breakfast does an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian get? The rest of us got greasy, half-fried eggs."

"Toast and more toast. I think they burnt it so it would be more ultra-recyclo, if you know what I mean."

"She came to tell me she finally remembered the ghost yesterday. That's all."

"Took her long enough to say that, if that's all she said."

"Sam, can you just drop it."

"No, I can't. this just like you and Valerie all over again."

"You told me that already."

"And you're not listening. Danny, I'm only doing this for your own good."

"Can't you pick of Tucker for a while. I'm sure he has something he needs help with."

"Already folded his cot for him. And don't forget T'Keisha because he sure hasn't."

"You keep helping people like that, you're going to lose your Goth creds."

"I'm just trying to keep you alive. What's so hard to understand about that?"

"I have a mother, all right? I don't need two!"

"Arrgg!" Sam marched away

Danny sighed, then stacked his stuff on top the plate. He looked at the sun, which had barely cleared the horizon far away. Barely morning and already his day was a mess.


	8. Bikini's At 12 O'clock

_Your Witty Quote Here_

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

The kids were given an hour after lunch to rest up before their swimming lessons. Of course Maple cabin didn't get as much free time since they had to do KP as the Head Ranger had ordered. But with all the kids working together instead of the one or two who usually did KP, the work was done quickly enough. Most of the kids flopped on their bunks to nap but Danny was too restless for sleep. He changed into his swim suit, grabbed a towel from pile on a chair near the door and headed outside.

Outside, though, he became unsure what he wanted to do. He couldn't go down to the lake by himself as he wanted. Each cabin had to go as a group with each boy or girl buddied-up. That was camp policy. He didn't feel like trampling around in the woods surrounding the cabins. What he really wanted to do was talk to Sam but she hadn't emerged from her cabin yet. He didn't have anything specific to talk to her about. It was just comforting to talk to her, friend to friend.

So Danny walked across the clearing to a remote picnic table, climbed on top as if it were a stand of bleachers, and sat down to wait.

He was staring off into the distance when he felt someone unexpected sit down beside him. He looked to the left and jumped, literally jumped, nearly falling off the table. Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde was sitting beside in him a pure white bikini so scanty it looked like underwear.

"So, Danny," she asked, "want to be my swim buddy this afternoon?"

Danny's mouth had turned bone dry. He tried to say something but his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. His eyes bulged till he thought they would pop from their sockets.

"What's the matter?" she teased. "Never saw a girl in a bathing suit before? I know you don't like me wearing white all the time but I thought you might make an exception for this. What do you think?"

He looked towards her, trying to appear nonchalant. He noticed that the heavy freckles on her face continued down to her shoulders but quickly faded away as they reached the rather conspicuous top of her halter.

He was still staring at the freckleless expanse a few moments later when:

"I'm up here!" Abigail said crossly.

Guiltily, Danny look up into a pair a very angry eyes. After a moment and with a visible effort Abigail smiled broadly. "Oh, you boys," she said sweetly, "Put on a little bikini and they get all tongue-tied."

"Why are you doing this?" Danny finally choked out.

"What ever do you mean?" Abigail cooed, then leaned in close to Danny, "Because it pisses off your girlfriend," she whispered. "I've gotten real tired of her and her snotty ways."

"Sam's not snotty,"

"And she's not your girlfriend -- I know, you say that often enough. I bet she's watching us from the cabin this very minute." Abigail laughed. "Watching and doing a slow burn. I wonder what she's do if I gave you a kiss like this..." Abigail leaned over quickly and gave him a kiss -- on the lips -- before he could turn away.

"Leave me alone, will ya. I know you don't really like me, and I don't like the way you always slam my parents," Danny argued. "Go back to chasing that ghost you say can't possibly be haunting the camp."

"But I do like you."

"You have a funny way of showing it."

"You don't like being kissed?"

"If you really liked me you would be nice to my friends as well, instead of playing some weird sort of "Desperate Housewives" game. We're fourteen, for crying out loud. You shouldn't be doing this."

Abigail looked at Danny strangely for a moment, looked down at herself for a moment and seemed to blush. Or maybe flush with anger, Danny couldn't tell which.

"Look, Fenton, I intend to make your little Goth kook cry so you'd better get used to it. Because you're not going to go anywhere today without me shaking my butt in her face!"

Abigail got up and stormed away. Danny couldn't help himself watch her walk away. It was a sight he wouldn't soon forget.

Any other guy in the world would die for a chance to have Abigail hovering around them the way she promised she would to Danny. So why did it have to be him? Had his sister, Jazz, ever acted so weird around boys?

The memory flashed to him of the time a year ago when he'd come downstairs in the middle of the night to make a sandwich. Jazz had been standing in the middle of the open front door kissing some boy. Five minutes later, sandwich in hand, heading back upstairs he noticed that Jazz hadn't moved, hadn't stopped kissing that boy, hadn't noticed him coming and going. And apparently hadn't noticed their father coming downstair some time later, either, although no one had slept through the shouting that followed. At the time he had felt smug that oh-so-perfect Jazz had finally gotten into trouble. Now, he suddenly realized, he was probably doomed to repeat her every mistake.

As Danny continued to watch Abigail walk away he noticed Mrs Doi coming out of the cabin and interception her. There was a brief, but seemingly heated conversation. After a moment the red-headed girl turned and stomped into their cabin. Mrs. Doi followed much slower. Danny had a guess what Mrs. Doi had said, and true enough, Abigail emerged a few minutes later wearing her more modest green bikini.

Danny looked at his watch and wondered when Tucker or Sam were coming out of their cabins. Tucker, he recalled, had said he was giving T'Keisha a cell phone call. Apparently she didn't believe in following the camp's "no cell phones" rule either. Danny was surprised to find that he somewhat resented Tucker having a girlfriend. He had always wanted his friend to have luck meeting girls, something Tucker tried constantly and constantly was shot down. Danny knew how much it meant to Tucker to have a girl - any girl - talk to him. Danny just hadn't realized that Tucker having a girlfriend meant that Tucker didn't have time for his old friends. And with Sam still mad at him about Abigail - and Danny knew, just knew, that Sam had watched from the cabin when Abigail had kissed him - it looked like Danny was out of friends for the rest of the week.

"Hey...uh...Danny...what's up?"

The voice coming from the woods behind him sounded like Sam, and for a moment Danny froze, fearing that she had been reading his mind, but the hesitation in her casual greeting was totally unlike her.

Danny turned. For the second time that morning his mouth went dry. "Sam?" he croaked.

It looked like her. Same black hair tied up in a pony-tail. Same heavily mascaraed eyes. Same black straw hat and black flip-flops. Same habitual angry expression on her face. Only she was wearing a pink two-piece bathing suit instead of her usual jet black maillot. A big yellow daisy was embroidered on the center of her top. The high-cut legs on her bottoms emphasized hips Danny had never noticed before. Her T-shirts were usually crop-tops so he was used to seeing her belly button, he wasn't used to seeing so much else of her.

"Too much, huh," she muttered, turned and run back into the woods. Danny realized he hadn't seen her coming because she had circled the entire clearing in the woods so no one would see her. He took off after her, calling for her to stop. Sam Manson, though, was a better runner than Danny would ever hope to be. There wasn't enough cover for him to risk changing to Danny Phantom; then he could fly rings around her.

He came crashing out of the woods just in time to see Sam sprint into her cabin. Since no good could come to a boy from Maple cabin walking near Hemlock cabin Danny turned around and walked back into the forest, circled around to his own cabin and went inside. Not so much to talk to Tucker as to hide from anyone else who might feel like they had to mess with his head.

The afternoon swim was divided into two parts. First everyone was assessed as to their swimming ability. Those who couldn't swim were taken over to a shallow part of the beach where they practiced confidence skills like floating and basic stokes. Those who could swim a little went to a another part of the beach to practice technique. Advanced swimmer could opt for either diving or water rescue. Since Dash was teaching diving Danny chose water rescue.

The class involved reading up on various tricks for grabbing a flailing person and pulling them to shore without being drowned in the process and then trying them out. As threatened, Abigail made sure to be Danny's partner. When she went out to pose as a drowning swimmer she nearly pulled Danny under because ...she wasn't acting. She wasn't nearly as strong a swimmer as she thought she was and after pretending for a while to be in trouble suddenly realized she couldn't hold her head above water after all and panicked. She was supposed to change roles with Danny and rescue him later but made such a deal about swallowing water and being half-drowned that she was excused. Danny was blamed for her problems and didn't get the credits he expected towards his Life Saving certificate. It was still a couple years before he would be old enough to get a summer job as a Life Guard but he wanted the certificate long before then.

As they sat on the sand watching the others complete their practice Abigail teased Danny about not giving her mouth to mouth after pulling her from the lake, but Danny wasn't paying her any attention. He was watching Sam practice dives from the pontoon float anchored a hundred yards off shore in deeper water. She was wearing her black one-piece again. Each dive she took looked effortless and flawless. He wished he had chosen diving instruction, even though with Dash teaching he was sure to collect a number of bruising and humiliating falls. It would be nice just to be near Sam. Even if she was mad at him.

When Tucker turned a simple jackknife into a belly flop for the second time in a row he turned to Abigail and remarked, "I take it Mrs. Doi didn't think highly of your white bathing suit."

The red-head girl rolled her eyes. "You'd think I wasn't wearing anything at all, the way she went on. Sheesh, Dad lets me wear it all the time."

"To the beach?"

"We have a swimming pool. Olympic size. Big diving board, the works."

"And you never learned to swim?"

"I can swim. I just got a cramp, that's all."

"Where, 'cause you were swinging your arms and legs pretty good."

"OK, I mostly sunbath. You happy? Swimming's nice but I don't do it much. It's a mess trying to comb out my hair afterwards."

"Can't be as bad as T'Keisha's, and she seems to swims all the time." Abigail's bright red hair was very curly but nowhere as kinky as the black girl's. "If all you do is sunbath all the time, how come you still look like a ghost? My sister turns as brown as a nut during summer."

"Lucky bitc-- girl." Abigail amended her comment. "It's my complexion. I don't tan, I burn, and easily. And all I get to show for it are these disgusting freckles. I look like some kind of stupid dalmatian."

"It can't be that bad," Danny said.

"That's because you're a boy."

"Huh?"

"Freckles add characters to boys. Any kind of flaw adds character to a boy. Girls, though, girls got to have flawless skin, straight hair, small feet..."

"Feet?"

"Yeah, feet! I'm fourteen years old and I have bigger feet than my mother's. You can't be delicate with feet like mine!" She waved a foot in Danny's face. Not having looked at a lot of other people's feet in his life he didn't know what to say.

"It doesn't look any bigger than anyone else's."

"What do you know."

"So your life is miserable because you have large feet?"

"And freckles, and ratty hair."

Danny looked at her again. Her face was oval with well proportioned features. The nose was neither too large or two small, the eyes neither too far apart or too close together. Her mouth was wide with somewhat full lips that were very expressive of her emotions. The freckles were there, very evidently so, but mostly of a fine and evenly distributed nature. Her hair was red verging on orange and very frizzy. She'd pulled it back into a ponytail for swimming but most of the time left it loose hanging down her shoulders. It...fit her. She wasn't an exotic beauty like Paulina at his school, whom he had had a crush on since 6th grade but she was pretty, very pretty actually. And knew it, he realized with a start.

Thinking to change the subject, Danny asked, "are you going to be a Man in White like your father when you get out of school?"

"Hel-l-l-o, Man in White. Do I look like a man to you?"

Danny was surprised by her sudden anger. "Uh, no, obviously...I mean...Surely they hire women... I mean it's just a title... They'd be discriminating if they didn't hire woman."

"Oh, they have women employees, all right. But somehow none of them ever get qualified for field operation. It's a little boys club is what it is."

"But surely your father would help you get a field assignment..."

"My father wasn't happy about letting me come to this camp. I picked it to be as far away from home as I could get."

Seeing Danny's confused expression, Abigail quickly added. "Don't get me wrong. I love my father. And he loves me. He'd do anything for me -- except let me go ghost-hunting."

"That sucks. Dad would love for me to join the company as a ghost researcher, but I want to be an astronaut. I want to go out into space and explore the universe."

"And he's happy with that?"

Danny shrugged. "I don't know, Dad can be pretty oblivious at times."

"Still you're a guy, and guys get to do pretty much what they want."

Danny was at a loss what to say. He looked down and saw Abigail's foot resting on the sand near his own foot. With a shock he realized that her foot was bigger than his. He looked back at her. Everything else seemed normally proportioned. "You should talk to my mom."

"I don't plan to marry any crazy men. I don't need tips on how to manage the unmanageable, thank you very much."

"No. I mean Mom is a full partner in the company. She's smart, resourceful, knows a ton of stuff and fights ghost alongside Dad. Always has." Danny reflected that the biggest threat to his existence as Danny Phantom wasn't his major arch-enemies like Vlad Plasmius but his mother's crack marksmanship and instant reflexes. "When she kicks butt, it hurts."

"Spoken like a man who has had his butt kicked a few times.," Abigail cracked. "But what good would talking to your mother do me?"

"You use her lipstick."

Abigail was left confused by that.

"The Fenton Lip Gloss and Ecto-blaster" Danny explained.

"The fact that the Lip Gloss actually matches my complexion is persuasive. But what is this obsession of your family to put ghost fighting equipment in every imaginable household object?"

We're...practical? What I mean is, Mom could tell you lots of stuff about how to be a successful woman."

"I'll think about it. That she married your Dad, though, that's wasn't smart so I don't know."

With a shake of his head Danny turned to see what Sam was doing on the diving platform. It looked like everyone was getting ready to come to shore.

"I think she's watching us," Abigail murmured. "Quick, kiss me!"

"What? No!"

"Don't you want to make her a little jealous?"

"No."

"Well, I do."

Abigail suddenly grabbed at Danny, Her lunge knocked them both over. For a moment she was sprawled on top of Danny, trying to reach his face, lips puckered up like a fish. After some awkward struggling, Danny pushed her away.

"Look, Sam's my friend. I want you to leave her alone, OK?"

"You keep pushing girls away like that people are going to think your gay," Abigail snapped, sitting up and brushing her hair out of her face. "You ought to take a clue from your other friend, the black kid, Tucker. He's got his hands all over that girl. If he's not careful he's going to get in trouble."

"What do you mean by that?" Danny squirted out at the diving platform. Tucker and T'Keisha were standing arm in arm under the diving platform tower. Danny couldn't make out what they were doing in the shadows. "They're not doing anything." he asserted.

"Oh, come on, Danny, even you can't be that clueless! Those two are so hot for each other this lake is the only thing that keeps them from bursting into fire right now."

"You're nuts!" Danny got up and walked along the shore a little ways. He saw that the water rescue group was bringing in their gear and went over to help. He glanced back and saw Abigail glaring at him with angry, dangerous eyes.

A motorboat brought the diving class back from the float. Danny tried to catch up with Sam as she got off but she grabbed up an armload of life-jackets and marched off with them to the storage locker. Danny followed. When she didn't immediately come out of the shed he went in. He found her hanging up the wet life-preservers on some rows of clothesline strung along the ceiling.

"You really looked good diving," he began.

"Thanks," Sam answered without looking at him. "Dash is really a pretty good instructor when he puts his mind to it. You should have come out."

"You know Dash has it in for me."

"What could he do with half the camp watching him?" Sam wondered.

"He'd find a way."

"I think you just wanted to spend time on the beach with little Miss Hotpants."

'No, she can't swim."

"Then why did you make her your partner? I thought you wanted to get your Life Guard certificate?"

"I do. But I didn't pick her. She grabbed me."

"You didn't seem to make much of a fuss."

"I would have if you hadn't already said you were going diving."

"So it's my fault that that little nymphomaniac nearly drowned you?"

"You were watching?"

"Everybody was watching. If you had been videotaped, they'd show you every year as an example of how not to rescue a person."

"This sucks. This is turning out to be the worst summer camp ever. You're pissed at me, Tucker's too busy with his girlfriend, I've got this stupid Girl in White wannabe ghost-hunter who seems better able to spot me than the ghost that is haunting this camp. It wasn't like this last year when we came to camp."

"Last year you weren't a ghost, and you came by yourself."

"I thought we were going to have so much fun, the three of us together."

"We would be having fun if you weren't so wrapped up in that red-head with her itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny white bikini."

"You were watching us this afternoon!"

"What are you talking about."

"That pink bathing suit! You were trying to compete with Abigail, weren't you!"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why, you looked pretty."

"No, I was hideous. I could see it in your eyes."

"I was speechless, Sam. I can't remember the last time I saw you not wearing black."

"I know what I saw."

"No, you don't. You ran away before I could say anything."

"Hey, you lovebirds done in there, I want to lock up." Booger was standing in the doorway holding the last couple life-jackets. Sheepishly Sam and Danny grabbed them, clothespinned them to the line, then walked out.

They were greeted by a wolf-whistle from Dash. About half the kids were watching.

"We're dead," Danny whispered.

Just as suddenly Abigail rushed up and grabbed his hand. "Come on," she ordered, "we're pairing up to play 'Pile-on' and I need you to carry me!" She started pulling him towards the lake.

"No," Danny shook off her hand. "Find someone else, I've had enough of swimming today. I'm going back to the cabin."

"Oh, go ahead," Danny was surprised to hear Sam urge. "Have your fun. You know you want to. I feel like I've caught a little too much sun. I'm going back to lie down."

"I'll go with you," Danny said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Booger interrupted. "No one's going back to their cabin alone, and certainly not you two together! If you don't feel well, sit down by Mrs. Doi, otherwise -- get in the lake!"

Feeling like the condemned man mounting the gallows Danny allowed Abigail to pull him away.

"Pile-on" was a straightforward game. Girls climbed on the shoulders of their partners and together would try to pull or push everyone else down. Last pair still on their feet won. Tucker and T'Keisha didn't last long. T'Keisha great height made them top-heavy and easy to knock down. Danny and Abigail were doing pretty well until a fat kid -- Ryan? -- and a brown-haired girl Danny didn't know, grabbed hold of them. The fat kid instantly stepped back in a well practiced move. The momentum of his move nearly pulled Danny over instantly. Danny dug in his feet and tried to pull back. For a moment it seemed to be working. At least he was still on his feet but then there was an "oops" from Abigail as she lost hold of the brown-haired girl. With nothing to pull against Danny and Abigail promptly went over. Danny came up sputtering and looked around for the red-head. She came up a moment later, coughing a bit, then with a laugh threw herself on Danny and gave him a kiss. "That was fun," she said.

Danny was embarrassed because it had been fun, even the kiss part, but now Sam had another thing to hold against him. "I gotta go," he told the girl.

"Oh, come on." she argued. "They're going to have another round of 'Pile-on' and this time I'm sure we can win."

"I gotta see Sam."

"You're like old married people. You can't spend five minutes apart without worrying what the other is up to."

"That's not true," Danny growled as he waded to shore.

"Of course it is, that's why it hurts," Abigail called after him.

Danny found Sam sitting in a lounge chair near Mrs. Doi. Sam was wrapped in several towels and actually didn't look too well. He dropped into the chair next to hers.

"Didja win?" she asked.

"Close. Some fat kid beat us. He was like a mountain, couldn't move him."

"mmm" Sam replied. "So, was your partner trying to drown you or give you mouth-to-mouth?"

"She's just trying to make you mad."

"Mmmmm"

They sat silently for a while, watching the other kids splashing around in the lake.

"About earlier this afternoon," Danny began.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"I know... I just want to ask one question."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"I know. Just answer me this one question and we'll never speak of it again, OK?"

"Geez,. OK. What?"

"That bikini, the pink one. Was that yours or did you borrow it from someone?"

"Oh, God," Sam groaned. "Every time I go somewhere my mother always tries to slip in some of the clothes she thinks I should be wearing. OK? So I've got a yellow blouse, an orange T-shirt, some white pants and that, that..."

"Pink bikini?"

"Right. None of which is going to follow me home."

"Ok, see, that was the part that confused me. I couldn't imagine you owning anything pink."

They sat quietly for a little bit more.

"You know, " Danny said, "now that I've had a little time to get over the shock I kind of think you looked cute in it."

"Oh, please,"

"Seriously. Except for that daisy on your chest. That didn't work. It was something I'd expect on a little girl's bathing suit."

"A very angry little girl's bathing suit," Sam added.

"But beyond that you looked very pretty in..."

"Don't say it."

"What? Oh, geez, that movie, right."


	9. Messages from Home

_Those are lion? I could eat one of those in one big-._

_Please don't._

_Scar Phantom and Danny Fenton (Villianess Times)_

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

Leaving the dinning hall after KP that evening Danny looked west towards the trail leading back to his cabin and sighed. If he went back to the cabin, he was liable to run into Dash or Abigail or Tucker or Sam, none of whom he wanted to talk to just then, He was feeling angry, though he wasn't sure about what. He needed some time alone, time to think.

To the east was the Camp offices, which included the small Internet Room. Campers were allowed to send and receive E-mail during free-time there. Usually there was a line coming out of the room and a strict ten minute limit on the use of the half dozen terminals there. Tonight Danny couldn't see anyone hanging around the door. Maybe he could talk to someone about his problems - well, e-mail them. As he walked down the gravel trail towards the offices he knew who he would have to E-mail, the last person in the world he would want to confide anything to. No, wait: that would be his mom. No, wait, telling anything to his father would be even worse. Not only would the advice be bad but the whole world would know about it by weekend. The last person in the world he would want to confide in - after his mother and father - would be his sister, Jazz. She would continue to pick at his problems long after they ceased to be a problem, but she wouldn't tell their parents and, Danny reluctantly admitted, she was usually right.

There were only a couple other kids in the room. Danny signed in and was given the toggle to unlock the terminal. Opening the E-Mail program he was hardly surprised to find that he had no mail. He went straight to "Compose" and typed in Jazz's address.

"Jazz," he wrote, "I never thought I'd be doing this, but I need your help. I hope you're on-line because I really need some answers now. I wish I could IM you but they don't have IM on these computers."

He went on to write about all the things that had happened that day, about Abigail and Sam's anger at him, Tucker's infatuation with T'Keisha, the Camp Ghost and so on. It was twenty minutes later before he finally clicked on "send."

Since no one was waiting for the computer and hoping that Jazz might write back, Danny stayed on-line, switching from the mail program to the browser. He checked in on some of the space discussion groups he belonged to. There was a vigorous debate on methane versus hydrogen as a rocket fuel, but the technicalities of fuel density, energy density, boiling points and in-situ manufacture couldn't distract him from his problem. Well, the guy arguing for solid fuel over either liquids that did call for a comment...so for a few minutes Danny was happily a thousand miles away. A beep from his computer alerted him that he had mail. He hastily dumped what he had been writing and opened Jazz's letter.

"I had been hoping to hear from you, " her E-mail began. "You need to talk to your friends. — Not Sam and Tucker, they're all right. I mean Scar!!!!!!!!!"

Danny didn't usually traded E-mails with his sister so he wasn't sure if multiple exclamation marks was normal for her or a sign of real distress. He read on:

"Imagine my surprise to find her in my bedroom !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! last night, trying to tap dance to the soundtrack of Happy Feet."

The thought of a ten foot high, twenty foot long, scaly, lion-like monster trying to tap dance was a sight he wished he had seen. Or maybe not. Scar wasn't the kind of entity that liked being laughed at. She wasn't so much a friend of Danny's as a villainess who had not yet decided to kill him. "But when did she see 'Happy Feet?' " Danny wondered. Jazz continued:

"Believe it or not, she wants to have therapy sessions with me. She thought the talk we had when she was visiting a couple months ago had been very helpful. While I am flattered that she thinks so well of me, I'm not sure how to convince her that I feel very uncomfortable conducting a very intense psychological session with someone with six inch claws THAT I KNOW FOR A FACT CAN RIP THROUGH STEEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This time Danny could tell Jazz's use of exclamation points was deliberate. She'd filled two lines with them.

"Perhaps you could persuade her to come as that nice little thirteen year avatar of hers, and through the front door!!!!!"

Since being turned onto a half-ghost a year ago during a freak lab accident Danny's life had been turned completely upside-down. He had gone from a lonely kid with only two real friends - Sam and Tucker - to someone well-known to a lot of people - mostly ghosts trying to kill him - but still it was a full and busy life. One with a lot of responsibilities. Danny realized that talking to Scar was something he would have to do. His sister was famously not hysterical. All these exclamation points indicated that if she was not hysterical now, was certainly experiencing something very similar to it. He didn't look forward to the conversation. Scar was exactly as frightening as Jazz described. The last time he had visited her, she had wanted to play "fetch" — with him as the stick!

But just as he was both Danny Fenton, human and Danny Phantom, ghost, Scar was both human and ectoplasmic monster. Her human avatar was a seemingly harmless thirteen year old girl, albeit, one with a ghastly scar across her face. She was apparently some kind of unholy, fantastically powerful clone experiment from the future sent back in time by accident. He didn't understand it all but as long as she stayed in the Ghost Zone he was happy to leave her be. But if she was going to visit the human world on a regular basis he had better convince her to do it as a human. He had come to see that as Danny Phantom that was his purpose.

Danny was about to wrote back to Jazz that the first task of any therapist was to set the terms and conditions of the sessions, including the use of steel-ripping claws, when it dawned on him that Scar, a creature who, according to her hints, had done more evil in her short life than any other villain in all time, was actually seeking help, trying to be a better person. Jazz had her work cut out for her, especially since she wasn't a trained psychiatrist, only a sixteen year old girl who read a lot. She didn't need him snapping cracks at her at the moment. The thought of his sister holding what could well be the fate of the world in her hands, was daunting.

Her letter continued:

"I'm glad Tucker's found a girlfriend there. But don't worry about him doing anything he'll regret. As I recall from my days as a camper, the mosquitos pretty much put a damper on anything beyond a bit of kissing. My advice to him is to not write down his experiences in a diary that some snot-nosed little brother will steal and blab to his parents!"

So she hadn't forgotten or forgiven him that.

"As for Sam, I've always considered her the most level-headed of your friends. So if she's not talking to you about something, I'm sure it is with good reason. And whatever it is, she'll be over it by the end of camp. — unless you've done something really stupid.

"Have you?"

"No." Danny thought to himself, then wondered just what Jazz might mean by "something really stupid?" Something like kissing Abigail? Or not kissing Sam? But Abigail had kissed him, not the other way around. Did that matter? When did girl get so hard to understand?

"You mention how this other girl kept kissing you today but I didn't hear you making any effort to resist."

"But I did, every time," Danny complained to himself

"You're worried that this might upset Sam but you're not resisting the temptation. You can stop her. You can just say 'No' to whatever she's trying to get you to do. All you have to do is just say 'No.'"

_Like she ever turned down a boy kissing on her!_ Danny grumbled.

"I'm more concerned that she might find out."

Jazz meant about him being a half-ghost, a secret only she, Sam and Tucker shared. They never spoke of it openly because you never knew who might be reading your E-Mails.

"Sam will get over whatever mischief you're getting in to but don't let this other girl find out. That's important."

I sent all the stuff I could find out about this ghost to Tucker's PDA like he asked, but if he's too busy to read his PDA I'd better copy it to you.

There was a death at the camp exactly fifty years ago. A boy named Ben Stone. I couldn't find a police report or autopsy report on-line but there was a Wrongful Death lawsuit, which was settled out of court. The records were sealed but I was able to dig up some newspaper reports about the case. That reminds me, I had to subscribe to a number of archival services to find all these records. I figure you owe me about two hundred dollars..."

"What!" Danny ejaculated. To himself he continued, _where am I going to find two hundred dollars? It would take all my allowance until I'm in college? And I'm not doing Jazz's chores either!_

"According to the newspaper accounts Ben Stone disappeared on Friday the thirteenth, July, 1953. His body was found four days later in the lake. His head was cut off and never found. One report mentioned that he appeared to have been already dead when he was dumped into the lake, and speculated that his head was cut off to prevent identification."

_That's stupid_, Danny thought to himself. One boy goes missing at camp, when they find a body who else would they think it is?

"Another newspaper spoke to some of the kids at camp. They gave conflicting descriptions of Stone. Some kids, the counselors mostly, said they didn't really remember much about him, but other kids said he was a shy, lonely kid that got picked on a lot.

And the coroner was quoted as saying that he was unable to determine the cause of death because of the missing head. Only that there was no sign of trauma to the body.

That's all I've got, sadly. I tried asking Dad about full moons and anniversaries on ghosts but he started yammering on like he does and I think I fell asleep before he got to the good stuff. Searching the mainframe brought a couple articles that suggest that full moons and special dates do empower ghosts, so be careful around this thing. I don't look good in black. LOL.

_That was so not funny,_ Danny thought.

That was all Jazz had written. He sent her a quick "thank you," printed out her message and logged off. Gathering up the sheets he was careful to tear off the portion where Jazz wrote about his friends. He was probably going to have to show this to Abigail. He didn't need to let her know he was talking to others about her.

As Danny walked down the path from the offices and pass the dinning hall he noticed that Mrs Sanchez, the cook, was sitting in her favorite spot on the loading dock, enjoying a cigarette. He didn't recall seeing Sam at dinner. She had said something about not feeling well as they had walked back to their cabins. She was probably starving by now.

"Good Evening, Mrs. Sanchez," he called. "Is there any fruit left in the kitchen? It's for Sam Manson. She wasn't at dinner because she wasn't feeling well. I thought she might enjoy a bite."

"Sam Manson?" Mrs Sanchez muttered. "Isn't she that veggie girl? What a pain in the butt always having to come up with one meatless plate each meal for her! What's wrong with her?"

"I think she got too much sun this afternoon during swimming."

"Ehh! With her complexion that wouldn't be hard to do. She needs to get out more. Get a little sun -- eat a little meat once in a while."

With a loud grunt Mrs. Sanchez heaved herself out of her chair. "Wait here," she said. "I'll be right back."

She was back in a couple minutes with a large paper bag. "Here. This will do her good for sunstroke. A bunch of bananas for potassium, some orange juice for Vitamin C and sugar, Apples for crunch. Raisins for dessert. Don't go eating all of it yourself."

"Thanks, Mrs. Sanchez. You're the greatest,"

"Ah, go on, get out of here before people start to think I'm an easy touch."

Danny carried the bag back to Sam's cabin and knocked on the door. A girl he vaguely recognized answered. He asked to see Sam.

Sam showed up a moment later looking wane and pale. Danny was surprised to see she was still wearing her bathing suit. She was wrapped in a blanket.

"Hey." she said.

"I didn't see you at dinner."

"I was sleeping."

"Since swimming?"

Sam looked down at her clothes. "Yeah. I laid down for a minutes and just woke up a half hour ago."

"Are you feeling better? I thought you might be hungry so I brought you some food from the dinning hall." Danny said, handing her the sack.

Sam looked into the bag. "Danny, you're a lifesaver!" She pulled out a carton of orange juice. ripped the carton open and drink the entire contents on the spot. She dropped the carton back into the bag and wiped some excess juice off her chin. She dug into the bag again, then paused. She looked up sheepishly and handed the bag back to Danny. "Here, find us a table while I get dressed."

Danny staked out a picnic table close to her cabin, under the shade of a tree. The sun was low in the sky. The breezes were cooling.

Sam came out in almost no time at all, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, flip-flops, all black of course. Danny wondered if she had actually dressed or just pulled the jeans over her swim suit.. She was carrying a large bowl and a knife. Aetheria, the punk girl with all the piercings was with her. Danny was disappointed because he wanted to talk about the Camp Ghost but didn't think he should in front of Sam's friend.

Sam made quick introductions and dug into the bag, pulling out one of the oranges. She quickly peeled it, throwing the rind into the bowl, and handing segments around. "I am so starved," she announced.

"What happened?" Danny asked.

"I don't know. I think I got too much sun."

"Forget your sunblock?"

"No, but I think I grabbed the SPF 12 when I should have used SPF 60."

"You don't look burnt." Danny observed.

"No, but I still felt like I was baked. Felt all woozy and lightheaded. Laid down for a nap and woke up a half hour ago. I did discover that there's something worse than throwing up," Sam said.

"What's that?"

"Feeling let you're about to throw up for a half-hour without doing so. That orange juice really settled my stomach. Thanks, Danny."

""No problem."

"Are you feeling better now?" He asked Sam.

"You keep asking! Yes, Yes. I'm much better, though I think I'm going to hit the sack early. I want to be at my best for the Olympics tomorrow. Gotta uphold the honor of Hemlock Cabin and all that."

"She sounds delirious to me," Aetheria said.

Aetheria was a very theatrical person. When she spoke, she liked people to pay attention to her. Breaking a nail was a calamity. Except that she took none of it seriously. While talking about the horrors of her childhood and her thoughtless, un-understanding parents she calmly and one by one removed her various piercings, swabbed them down thoroughly with alcohol, scrubbed the site of the piercing with more alcohol and replaced the metal.

"I started with my ears. My parents had them pierced when I was three, I think. Or two. I was too young to remember. I think I was nine when I first tried to pierce my ears myself. I remembered to sterilize the safety pin with a flame but I forgot to numb my earlobe with an ice cube first. That was a pain that lingered. Didn't stop me, of course. When I saw the look on my mother's face when she saw the little skull dangling from the top of my ear I knew I had found my life's work."

"Doesn't it make it hard to find friends with so many piercings?" Danny wondered.

"People who can't see past my piercings aren't worth calling friends. Now I think you would look darling with a little nose ring, right there!" Aetheria shot back, touching Danny on his left nostril.

Danny blanched. 'I don't think so. I don't have a lot of friends now, why would I want to keep any away?"

"You're just afraid it will hurt. Boys are so squeamish," Aetheria announced to Sam who had been trying to imagine Danny with a nose ring. Surprisingly, she couldn't see it.

"You'd think what with them being so macho and all, boys would be the ones getting the piercings, to show off how much pain they can take."

"My grams says that you don't know the meaning of pain until you've given birth. I guess that means girls are just better than boys when it comes to pain," Sam said.

Aetheria's twisted up her face. "Kind of puts one off the whole 'joy of birth' thing when you put it that way."

"I think I'll be going," Danny said, starting to get up.

"Oh, don't go," Aetheria said. "We're just messing with ya."

"I never thought of pain as a competitive sport," Danny said.

"What other point is there to boxing?" Aetheria asked. "Look, each piercing hurt. Some hurt a lot, a few got infected despite my best care. If it didn't hurt so much, I'd have a lot more. But every time I think my mother is starting to get used to the way I look, I start plotting where to put the next one."

"Wouldn't therapy be cheaper?" Danny asked.

"It would take a lifetime of therapy to reconcile me to my mother. Body piercings are a lot faster and more reliable."

"Sam?" Danny asked.

"Don't look at me. My parents have taken me to see lots of therapists. It hasn't done me any good," Sam continued. "I will be who I will be, dark and gloomy!"

"You're saying that acting out is better than therapy?" Danny questioned.

"Only when the therapy is trying to change who you are," Aetheria answered.

Danny shook his head, confused. "You know Scar's trying therapy," he told Sam.

"Scar!" Sam blanched. She'd met the half-ghost monster.

"She dropped in on Jazz last night."

"Poor Jazz."

Aetheria was starting to scowl for being left out of the conversation.

"Jazz wants me to talk to Scar about setting boundaries."

Sam snorted. "Good luck with that."

"Yeah, but I'd like to think that therapy will help Scar. You two talk like its just a big waste of time."

"Most people I know getting therapy, "Aetheria said, "are better off without it."

"I don't know," Sam said hesitantly. "I've learned a lot if useful stuff in therapy. I just refuse to let it change me. Scar, though, I don't know. She's... pretty messed up. It could do her a world of good."

"You know I was thinking of getting tattoo," Aetheria said. "I was thinking of a flaming skull on my boob.," She tapped the space over her heart. Danny turned away, too embarrassed to look where she was pointing.

"For some reason, I thought you already had a tattoo." he said.

"Tattoo parlors are a pretty closely regulated. I gotta dig up a really good fake ID before I can get one. You gotta be eighteen to get one and I'm only sixteen. Felt like sixty but that's another story."

"How did you get your piercings, then?"

"Most I did myself, other I had friends do. I went to a shop to do my tongue." She stuck out her tongue and Danny was horrified to see a pin going through it. "They did piercings in a back room ,no questions asked."

To Danny's relief Sam suddenly asked, "You want some of these raisins?"

"Yeah, sure," he said and she handed a bunch to him, then scooped out a handful for Aetheria.

"These are good, very sweet," Danny said.

"Oh yeah. Nature's candy," Sam commented.

"I'm not grossing your out, am I," Aetheria asked.

"Maybe just a little," Danny said.

"Then my work is done," Aetheria said.

"I take it you heard from Jazz tonight. What else did she have to say?" Sam asked.

"Here," Danny passed over the pages from Jazz's email.

Before Sam could stop her, Aetheria leaned over and read the pages as well. "There's a ghost at this camp? Cool! Wait, this is the kid they were talking about the first day of camp, the kid that was supposed to have been killed by a crazed up counselor! O-o-o. The counselors were acting guilty. Don't notice anything strange or different about the victim. They are such liars. I bet one of them was picking on this kid and they're covering up for some reason."

"Because one of them killed him?"

"Nah. They would have turned on him. This is something they were all guilty of."

"How do you know all this stuff?" Danny asked.

"Years of juvenile delinquency."

"Therapy,"Sam cut in, "See: it is good for something."

"But why did they cut off his head?" Sam wondered.

"Who?" Danny wondered.

"The counselors, of course," Sam answered. "Why else would they all lie to cover for each other."

"They cut off his head? That's gross!" Danny complained.

"She right,"Aetheria injected.

"The counselors killed him, cut off his head and threw his body in the lake? But why? It doesn't make any sense?"

"Maybe it does to a ghost," Aetheria suggested.

"No, from what I've read about ghosts they tend to be pretty logical, once you figure out their logic." Sam said.

Danny disagreed with that notion since most of the ghosts he knew had an irrational urge to kill him. But this wasn't about the ghost, he realized. It was what the counselors did that staked the ghost to this one place and caused it to relive over and over its death. And the counselors were humans, so whatever they did, ultimately had to make human sense.

"How many counselors are at this camp?" Aetheria asked, "around thirty. Thirty people don't simultaneously all kill someone."

"They did in "Murder on the Orient Express," Danny quipped.

"That was a movie — "

"A book." Sam corrected.

"Whatever, My point is that they didn't kill him but they felt compelled to hide his death."

"And if we know why they did that, we would know what drives this ghost," Danny said.

"So what do we know?" Aetheria asked. "That his head was never found. There's something about his head that would reveal the full scope of what they did. Find the head and we'll know what it is they did."

"And if we unite it with its body," Danny said. "The ghost might transition to the Ghost Zone and leave us alone."

"Good luck with that. If they couldn't find it fifty years ago I doubt anyone's going to find it today," Aetheria said.

Danny remembered the vision he had seen in the abandoned cabin the day before, just before the Camp Ghost had attacked. There was a clue there he'd like to discuss with Sam but he couldn't do it now with Aetheria here. He couldn't reveal that he was Danny Phantom.

Sam and Danny were quiet for a minute, thinking about stuff they couldn't reveal in front of the punk girl. Aetheria re-read Jazz's emails, then dropped them back on the table. "You two act like you're going after this ghost. Shouldn't you leave that to trained professionals?"

"Words of caution from you?" Sam asked, with a light laugh.

"I stick holes in my body. Nobody gets hurt but me. Messing with a ghost — that's seriously dangerous. I like you, Sam, and I guess your little friend's OK, too. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I don't plan to."

"Okay, then. Good. Look, I've got to go. Believe it or not, I've got a boy who wants to met me at Make-out Point."

"Where's that?" Danny asked.

"You don't know? Doesn't matter, you'll just have to take Sam some where else. I don't like company when I'm with a boy."

"That's not what I meant," Danny said blushing. Sam seemed blushing as well. "I'm never heard of any place called that before."

"Oh, it's a little ways up the trail that starts over there. There's a nice view of the sun setting over the lake. But "Occupido!" One couple at a time."

Aetheria got up and walked back to the cabin. She came out a moment later with a shirt thrown over her T-shirt and disappeared up the trail.

After a moment Danny turned to Sam and asked, "You're not going to get any piercings are you?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, you seem to really like Aetheria and she's got all these piercings..." he trailed away.

Sam looked at him. "And...?" she prompted.

"Well, I know you're not supposed to criticize other people or their beliefs and all, but... well, they're kind of gross and I like you the way you are."

"Oh, Danny, how sweet. — Because I have no plans for changing!"

Danny sighed.

"But I already have piercings..."

"What!"

Sam laughed. "My ears. I've have pierced ears since I was six. You know that. I just don't normally wear jewelry. So are you grossed out that I have holes in my ears?"

"That's different." Danny scowled. "It's the rest of the face I meant."

Sam picked up a raisin from her hand and threw it at Danny. "Ow," he cried, that smarts."

"Danny, sometimes I think the reason I like yo so much is because you are so hopelessly square." Seeing Danny scowl, she quickly added, "In a good way, Danny. In a good way. Whenever I feel like my life is spinning out of control, there you are, consistent and reliable. That means a lot of me, Danny. It really does."

Embarrassed by Sam's revelation, Danny picked up the print-out of Jazz's E-mails. "I suppose we should give these to Abigail," he said.

"It that another excuse to talk to her?" Sam sniped.

Danny was confused by Sam's sudden change of mood.

"We did say we would look this stuff up." Danny reminded her.

"Doesn't mean we have to give them to her."

"If we give her this information she'll chase after the ghost and leave us alone."

"No, she'll find some way to work you into her project. And then she'll find out you're a ghost and that will be the end of you."

"It won't happen."

"No, it won't because you're not giving her these papers!"

"What's got into you, Sam?"

"Nothing's got into me. And nothing going to got into you, either. Certainly not some red-headed wannabe ghost hunter."

"Sam, you're starting to sound really jealous. It's not like you. We've been friends since kindergarten. That's never going to change."

Sam looked at Danny with angry eyes for a moment. "All right. If it will make you happy I'll give her these pages. But you've got to remind her that when it comes to hunting this ghost she's on her own!"

"Yes, Sam, I will. I had no intention of ever going ghost-hunting with her."

"Good!" Sam looked over Danny's shoulder. "Looks like someone's looking for you."

Danny turned and saw Dash stalking down on him. "Oh my gosh. It must be eight o'clock. The Head Ranger's curfew. Gotta go. Good-night."

He jumped up and ran towards the cabin, making a wide detour around Dash. Just before entering the cabin he looked back to see Sam getting up from the table. She had the big bowl, now filled with peelings, in one hand and the sheaf of papers in the other. Things had been going well until he had mention Abigail's name. It was easy for his sister to say there was nothing the matter with Sam, but he knew differently.


	10. Hormonal Nightmare

Danny woke with a start. The cabin was quiet but for the soft snores of a couple of the other campers. The nearly full moon shone brightly through the windows providing a half-light that make objects in the cabin easy to see. A faint smell of campfire drifted in through the screened windows.

Danny looked around, trying to see what it was that had awaken him. No one was stirring. There were no unusual noises. He looked over at next cot were Tucker was sleeping, buried down under his sleeping bag although it wasn't all that cold. Then he noticed his breath, coming out in a little fog. His Ghost Sense! Something supernatural was on the prowl.

Danny decided he ought to go see what it was, but first he would let Tucker know in case he had to cover for Danny. He slipped out of bed and reached over to shake Tucker's shoulder. But his hand met something spongy and cool.

"Tuck?" he whispered.

There was no answer.

He felt around on the bed. All he could feel was a fluffed up pile of clothes and blankets. He pulled the top sheet back and saw. gleaming in the moonlight, Tucker's PDA. The PDA that Tucker never went anywhere without!

Danny sat on the edge of his cot perplexed. Tucker had obviously snuck out. Why would he do that? Why would he not tell Danny? Make-Out Point! Of course. Tucker and T'Keisha must have snuck out to go there. He could understand why he had made up the cot to look like he was still in it. But why had he not told Danny, his best friend? He could keep a secret. He had a bunch of really big secret he had to keep, and besides, it wasn't like it mattered that Tuck snuck out for a make-out session or not. It just stung that he hadn't confided to Danny.

Danny looked at his wristwatch. It was well past midnight. Danny had no idea when Tucker had snuck out but it seemed to him that he ought to Have been back before this. Not that he had any idea what one did at a make-out point, but surely it wouldn't take all night, did it?

He sat there for a few more minutes thinking. The more he thought, the more he was sure Tucker was in trouble. He was sure that what woke him up had been his ghost sense. He was sure that he had to find Tucker -- now, before it was too late!

Danny stooped down below the level of the cots so no one could see him 'going ghost.' Turning intangible, he flew through the wall of the cabin and soared over the small group of cabins. He flew in a widening circle looking for his friend. All was dark and quiet. No where could he see his friend, no where could he sense the presence of another ghost. When Danny came to the clearings of the other clusters of cabins, he quit searching and flew back to his cabin. He thought for a moment. He needed help.

Danny flew over to Hemlock cabin and slide intangible under the floor until he came to where he thought Sam's bed was located. She would be pissed if he just phased through the walls looking for her so he was going try to locate her from outside, then grab her and carry her outside. But he couldn't make a mistake and grab the wrong girl...

So when he was sure he was at the same spot under the cabin where he had talked to Sam before, he stuck his head up just far enough to look at who was sleeping there. Sure that it was Sam he took hold of her arm, when immaterial and carried her through the roof and landed at a near-by picnic table.

"Sam! Shh! It's me, Danny," he called as he gently sat the sleeping girl down on the bench.

She woke with a start, her eyes bugged out as she saw herself outdoor, hissed and took a swing at Danny.

"Sam! It's me!" Danny whispered

"I know it's you, what do you think you're doing? Kidnaping me? You're just lucky I wear pajamas at camp!"

"You don't wear pajama normally?" Danny glanced down and saw that Sam was dressed in an ankle length black nightgown. "This is important," he said, shaking his head in confusion. "We have to talk."

"It can wait till morning." Sam snapped.

"No! Tucker's missing."

"What?" Sam was caught completely off-guard. "Have you looked?"

"I've been all over the camp but I can't find him from the air. I think we need to do a ground level search."

"Why me? Get Dash."

"Because I don't think Tucker went alone. I need for you to check to see if T'Keisha's in her bed."

"You think they ran off together?"

"Yeah."

"You think they're making out somewhere. Danny. I don't think either will appreciate it if we walk in on them."

"Sam, it's after midnight! Even if they were making out somewhere I don't think they would stay out this late. Anyway, my ghost sense went off so I think they're in trouble."

"We should tell Dash and Mrs. Doi." Sam suggested.

"Mrs. Doi would insist on calling the Head Ranger, Dash might, too. I'd rather we find them with out so many people knowing. I don't want them to get into trouble."

"You right about that. Ok, I check. You'll have to float me through the wall. But you stay out!"

Sam lead Danny around to one of the windows, the one nearest T'Keisha's bed. He grasped her hand and turned her immaterial and pushed her through the open window. Then broke contact. After a minute Sam was back, whispering through the mosquito netting. "T'Keisha's gone, too. I'll get a couple of her friends and you get a couple of your friends to help. We're going to need the extra help. We'll meet out here in a couple minutes."

Danny flew back to his cabin, floated up through the floor onto his bed before changing back to his human avatar. He thought for a moment who he could ask to help. Sadly he wasn't one to make friends easily and couldn't count any of his fellow campers as friends. Nor could he think of anyone who Tucker might have made friends with. That left only two choices. Sid and Sam. They were two perpetual malcontents and potential juvenile delinquents. They didn't know Danny or Tucker but they would be happy to help since it would be defying Dash and the camp rules. The three were dressed and armed with flashlights within five minutes. Danny quietly slid the latch off the outside door and they raced across the clearing to Hemlock cabin where Sam and her two friends were also just coming out.

At a glance who she had invited, Danny caught her arm and pulled Sam apart from the others. "Are you nuts?" he whispered. "Why did you invite Abigail along. I thought you hated her? What if I have to go ghost?"

"You'd have the same problem if Abigail was here or not. You can't change in front of any of the others, either. And it doesn't matter what I think of her, if the Camp Ghost is involved then we ought to have as many ghost fighters on hand as possible."

"But..." Since he couldn't think of an objection, Danny let it go.

As they got back to the group, Aetheria, Sam's other choice was discussing what to do about there being two "Sam's" in the group. "We can call our Sam 'Goth Sam' and you can be 'Normal Sam' or -- I've got it, 'Bourgeois Sam' "

"Never mind," Sam said, "we'll figure it out. Let's start at Make-out Point."

Aetheria lead the way. Make-Out Point was a small clearing about a hundred yards from camp hidden inside a dense clump of trees. It had a nice view of the lake, which was brilliantly lit by the full moon. The lake seems unusually choppy. Danny guessed there was a strong breeze coming down off the mountains to the west. The reflected moonlight was scattered in an infinite pattern of tiny glowing specks. It looked very pretty and somehow ominous. perhaps because he was so worried about Tucker. The truth of it was that Tucker didn't do stuff like this. It simply wasn't like him.

Aetheria had been running her flashlight over the ground in the clearing. There was a trampled area in the middle, with the best view of the lake. Some trash lay off to the side. Danny wasn't sure what Aetheria was looking for. "I don't think they were ever up here," she announced. "I was up here earlier tonight and nothing looks different."

Sid and the other Sam sniggered. "Any body we know?" they asked.

"Let's spread out and see if we can find any indication that they were around here." Danny directed.

The kids spread out, keeping within range of their flashlights and started scouring the ground. They hadn't gone very far when Sid called out that he had found something. He held up a boy's left sneaker.

"That's Tucker's" Danny confirmed. "They must have been going west."

The six kids changed their search line to a more westerly direction and continued. Soon the other Sam called out, "I've got something."

"What is it?" Danny asked.

"I don't know?" He held it up and shone his light on it. It was a small scrap of fabric, silky looking, with black ribbons attached at haphazard points.

"You idiots" Sam declared, marching over and snatching the fabric out of the boy's hands. "That's a bra. Don't you know one when you see it?"

"No..."

"Is it T'Keisha's?" Danny asked.

"Who else's would it be?"

"Ok, Ok. So they're definitely heading this way. Come on!"

In short order they found Tucker's pants, his other shoe, his shirt, one sock, his underpants and the other sock. T'Keisha's clothes seemed to alternate with Tuckers around a general line leading west well beyond the cabins and raising above the level of the plains. Her bra was followed by her pants, a sock, her underpants, the other sock, her jeans, and finally her shirt. Tucker's beret was the last item found, sticking on the branches of a thorny thicket running along a low cliff.

The searchers paused, confronted by an impenetrable wall of brush.

"Something's not right," Abigail said.

"We found all their clothes. They have to be around here somewhere," Sid said.

"It's not like they'd try to get through there," the other Sam said. "I wouldn't want to try it with my clothes on, let along buck naked."

Danny looked around the little clearing that seemed to be the end of their trail. He tried to sense any ghost activity but there was nothing. He looked down at the lake, now far away and a couple hundred feet below them, shimmering like liquid fire.

"Yeah know, "Aetheria began, "the thing that bothers me is why did they take off their clothes. In my short life as a moral degenerate making out doesn't generally involved getting undressed. Unbuttoning a few things, maybe, but not a strip routine like we've been following."

The other Sam snorted. "Maybe because you weren't doing it right."

"Says the man who doesn't know a bra when he's holding one!"

Sam looked down at the bundle of clothes she was holding. As each item of T'Keisha's apparel was found she had taken possession of it. "It's weird that the first thing of T'Keisha's we found was her bra. and the last was her shirt. Why take her bra off first?"

"How could she do it?" Danny asked.

"It's easy. I'll show you if you're interested," Aetheria answered.

"Not now!" Sam ordered.

"And why did we find her underpants before her jeans, and her jeans before her shoes. Her pants were pretty tight fitting. I don't thing you could pull them off with your shoes on, and especially not if they're running through the woods." Abigail said.

"We've been duped," Danny said. "We've been following a clearly laid out trail away from where Tucker and T'Keisha are. Someone doesn't want us to find Tucker and T'Keisha too soon."

"Who would want to do that?" Sid asked.

"The Camp Ghost," Abigail said.

"The what?" the other Sam asked.

"The Camp Ghost," Abigail repeated. It's been haunting this camp for fifty years but no one ever seems to remember it."

"But why would it want to kidnap Tucker and T'Keisha?" Aetheria asked.

"It's a poltergeist ghost, it's drawn to sexual energy. "Abigail explained.

"Well, not wonder it's haunting this camp, it's got hormones coming out the wazoo," Aetheria injected.

"But why would the ghost lure us out here," Sam wondered.

Because it's going the other way. The ghost's body was found in the lake, so I think that makes it a nexus point for it. I don't know what it plans to do to them, but it's going to do it at the lake. Come on!"

Danny took off before anyone else has quite taken in what he was saying. He was a twenty five yards in advance of them before they started running down the hillside towards the lake. Danny had done that intentionally. As soon as he was far enough ahead of them, he ducked behind a tree and changed into a ghost, then at a hundred and twenty miles and hour, his top speed, he flew to the now sinister looking lake.

What looked like the full moon glittering on the waves turned out to be the glow of the ghost as it moved out onto the lake. It's form was still vague and indistinct, tough now huge, twenty feet or more tall. Danny could see the appearance of arms holding Tucker and T'Keisha. A vague split in the bottom of the ghost could be have been legs. It had no head, as ever, just glowing orbs where it's eyes should have been. There was an electric quality to the air, like just before a thunderstorm. As he swooped in on the ghost Danny could feel a miasma of fear, horror and hate. Just bearing in on the ghost took an act of will.

Danny started by firing a series of ectoplasmic fireballs at the ghost. He could see the balls of fire explode over the ghost, the eldritch energies snarling at the ghosts forms, writhed and died. Danny swooped around in a tight loop and came back at the ghost hoping to physically smash into it. An arm holding Tucker swept through the air, knocking Danny into the lake. Water closed over him like a wall of cement. He turned intangible and flew up, lacing into the ghost with another series of fireballs.

This time he aimed for the eyes, or whatever they were. The ghost flinched. Danny was able to get in close to grab Tucker's arm but the ghost was holding on too tight for Danny to pull Tucker free and when Danny tried going intangible he found he couldn't extend the intangibility to Tucker the way he usually could.

Suddenly a sharp blow hit him in the back driving him once again into the lake. As he surfaced he could see a line of fire streak for the shore and play over the ghost. A roar of pain and anger beat upon him, a psychic cry from the ghost. Looking landward he saw that Sam and the others had finally arrived. Abigail was standing on the end of the pier wielding the Fenton lipstick. The others were huddled around Sam waiting for her to tell them what to do.

"What's the use of having the calvary arrive when they can't get to you?" Danny grumbled, before making another pass at the ghost. Abigail's lipstick fire was keeping it distracted making it easier for Danny to get in close but at the same time Abigail didn't seem to be discriminating between the ghost and him, making it difficult to maneuver without getting hit by friendly fire.

Sam and the others had skidded to a halt at the edge of the water and watched the two ghosts fighting. Abigail fished in her pants pocket and pulled out a small cylinder that looked like a tube of lipstick. It was a tube of lipstick but like every other FentonWorks product also contained a deadly ghost-fighting weapon. Abigail gave to tube a reverse twist that extended the built-in blaster. She took aim and squeezed off a shot.

Sam gave a gasp as it hit Danny, knocking him into the lake. Was he alright she wondered? "Be careful!" she yelled at Abigail, "Can't you see that that smaller ghost is trying to help?"

"A ghost is a ghost!" Abigail shouted back, taking aim again.

Sam grasped her arm, spoiling her aim before she could fire. "That's not true," she shouted in Abigail's ear. "That one is friendly. He -- it is trying to rescue Tucker and T'Keisha."

"How would you know? And if you ever get in my way when I'm trying to shot I'll knock that smug head off your block."

Sam grabbed Abigail's arm again. "You harm ...you..." she swallowed what she was going to say, realizing that she had almost reveal Danny's secret.

"Hey, hey, guys!" Aetheria broke in, muscling the two girls apart. "Fighting among our selves won't help anybody."

"But she..." Abigail argued.

"She's right, look! That smaller ghost is fighting the bigger one. We need all the help we can get so do what Sam's says, only shot at the big ghost. The one who actually has our friends."

Abigail angrily shook off Aetheria's hand and started running towards the pier, as she left she threw back a "bitch" in Sam's direction.

Sam turned to take after her but Aetheria held her back. "We gotten get out there to help. Any ideas?"

Sam looked around the beach. There weren't even stones to throw at the Camp Ghost. And the ghost was traveled too far out for them to follow. The Camp Ghost was floating above the water a hundred yards from shore. While the lake had a gradual slope it was over their heads by then.

"We need some canoes." Sam said. "Anyone have idea how we can get into the storage shed?"

The boy Sam, nudged his friend, "Isn't that your specialty."

"Once! I broke into a house once." Sid protested.

"...but can you break into that building right now?" Aetheria asked.

"Well..." Sid equivocated. "I need a lockpick."

"Will this do?" Aetheria asked. She had removed one of the larger rings from her ear and was straightening it out."

Sid hesitated, Sam bumped him on the shoulder, "Come on, we don't have a lot of time. There can't be that much of a charge built into that lipstick."

Sid picked up the bit of metal and hurried over to the storage shed. He grabbed the padlock on the door and, after bending a small hook in one end of the former earring began fiddling with it inside the lock. After a moment he gave the lock a jerk, when it didn't open he cursed and tried a again. After the third attempt the lock popped open. He pulled the door open and handed the bit of metal back to Aetheria. "Look," he whispered, "I'm still on probation, so don't tell anybody that I did that. OK?"

Sam and the other Sam pushed passed them and grabbed a canoe, threw in a couple paddles. Sam stopped and grabbed a seat cushion as well. "In case we have to jump in the water to rescue them," she explained.

Sid and Aetheria was right behind them with another canoe.

"Hey, where's Danny?" the other Sam asked "Shouldn't he have been here before us?"

Sam thought fast. Danny was there ahead of them but she couldn't explain that he was the smaller ghost out on the water fighting to save Tucker and T'Keisha.

"I don't know. Maybe he went to get the Head Ranger," Sam offered lamely.

Danny saw the two canoes coming across the water and redoubled his efforts. With the ghost distracted by a couple close spaced shots from Abigail he flew in and threw his arms around Tucker and tried again to pull him away. He thrust this way and that but the ghost's grip was too strong. Danny let go with one hand so he could fire ectoplasmic blasts at the ghost. The blast must have made a mark because the ghost whipped its arm up and down trying to shake Danny off. He smiled, thinking he was close to success, when he suddenly felt himself slipped and grabbed on to Tucker again.

He found his nose pressed against Tucker's belly button, his arms were encircled around the small of Tucker's back. Only the swell of his friend's butt had stopped Danny from being completely flung away. Another couple inches and Danny would have been seeing parts of his friend he never wanted to see.

Danny pushed himself up with his power of flight and wrapped his legs around Tucker, kind of like a wrestler's hold. With one arm thrown over Tucker's should and neck Danny clung to Tucker like a leech. He reached deep within himself to find all the energy he could muster and directed it along the line of the ghost's arm.

Since the fight had begun the ghost had increased in solidity and strength, as if it has been pulling in a mass that had been previously spread all over the camp. But as it became more solid it seem to become more vulnerable to Danny's blasts.

Danny's energy bolt bit deep into the ghosts form. He could see it's substance start to boil where the bolt was aimed. With a deafening roar the ghost flung Tucker and Danny away from itself. It swung its other hand, with T'Keisha clutched in it at them, smashing Danny hard in the back. Pain flared all through his body. For a moment he lost consciousness, splashing into the lake alongside Tucker's unconscious body, reverting back to Danny Fenton.

The shock of the cold lake, the spasm as water entered his lungs brought Danny back to consciousness. He swam back to the surface, hacking and spitting out the water he had swallowed. He still held on to Tucker, making sure that his friends face was out of the water. The canoes were nearby. He could easily swim over to them and hand over Tucker. He felt too weak, too tired to go ghost again. It would be so easy to just stop and rest, now that he had gotten his friend free. Then Danny remembered that T'Keisha was still held by the ghost. It didn't matter how tired or sore he felt, he couldn't quit until both were free.

In case he was close enough for the people in the canoes to see him, Danny ducked under water before changed back to a ghost. He flew up with Tucker and soared over to Sam's canoe. He dropped Tucker into the middle of the canoe and took off again before anyone could ask any questions. He turned towards the Camp Ghost only to find that it was coming towards him -- or towards Tucker.

"Get Tucker away from the ghost," Danny hollered to Sam. "Don't let him get him again!"

Reluctantly Sam picked up her paddle and headed back to the shore. Aetheria, in the other canoe, called over to her, "We'll stay and try to pick up T'Keisha."

Danny floated in front of the Camp Ghost, waiting to see what it does. The ghost had grown to over thirty feet tall while it had been fighting Danny. But since Danny had pulled Tucker free it was beginning to shrink a little bit. It still towered over Danny. The ghost tried to brush pass Danny but he moved back in front of it. It tried to move around him again. Again Danny blocked it. Suddenly there was a roar and a miasma of despair. To his shock Danny found himself growing weaker as the miasma rolled over him. Abruptly he was splashing around the water as the ghost strolled past him towards the shore.

He was trying to shake off the sudden weakness when he heard shouting from near-by. Loking up he could see Aetheria and Sid waving and hollering at the ghost. They had maneuvered their canoe in close and were trying to strike at the ectoplasmic monster with their paddles. The ghost turned and wonder a gigantic arm in their direction, knocking them both into the water twenty feet from their canoe.

Off in the distance he could see that Sam and the other Sam had beached their canoe and carried Tucker onto the shore. The other Sam had gone back to the canoe for a paddle and stood in front of Sam and Tucker, paddle held at guard.

The ghost tried to stride past the other Sam but he rounded on it with a tremendous blow from the paddle. Even out on the lake Danny could hear the smack at the paddle struck the ghost. The ghost turned to swat at the other Sam but he countered with a backhand blow that spoke of numerous tennis lessons.

Abigail had ceased firing, possibly she had exhausted the charge in the lipstick. He saw her running back down the pier, grabbing up the other paddle as she passed the canoe and swinging at the ghosts backside as it faced the other Sam. The ghost turned and knocked Abigail to the ground, only to find the other Sam had leaped up, grabbed T'Keisha's foot and was trying to pull the girl out of the creature's grasp. It swung it's free arm at the other Sam and knocked him cartwheeling down the beach. With no one in its way it reached out for Sam and Tucker.

Seeing his friends in danger sent a burning rage throughout Danny's body. As suddenly as it had come the despair and weakness was gone. He exploded out of the lake and streaked towards the monstrous ghost. He slammed into the ghost at his maximum velocity, driving it to it's knees, or what appeared to be knees. It abandoned the two teen-agers on the beach, Sam desperately trying to drag Tucker's inert body away, and rounded on Danny. He splashed ectoplasmic goo over the entities twin glowing orbs. It thrashed it's arms in front of itself, trying to avoid more of the ooze. Danny swung in close and peppered it with light energy bolts. The monster seemed to turn two shades brighter in hue and took after Danny, who lead it farther and farther away from the shore and Tucker and the others.

It was a relief to get them safe again but how was he going to free Tucker's girlfriend? He could have used some supporting fire from Abigail about now but suspected she had used up the limited charge on the lipstick. The fire-power hadn't been enough to really harm the ghost but it had kept it distracted so he could fly in close and hit it with his own greater power. Now with the ghost concentrating solely on him it would be hard to get in close again.

Suddenly there was a thud and a loud smack. Looking down Danny saw Sid and Aetheria, back in their canoe, paddling between the ghosts stalk like legs, slapping at them with their paddles as the opportunity presented. The ghost paused in its stride and looked down at them. It bent to reach after them. Danny saw his chance and roared in.

He laid down a row of blasts around the ghost's torso then tried to grab T'Keisha. He got his arms around her waist but came up with an abrupt jerk as the ghost's hold on the girl proved stronger than Danny had anticipated. He found himself once again hanging from someone's naked waist. "Geez," he muttered, "I do not need to see this!"

He dropped loose and dived into the lake, flew through the water behind the ghost then popped up and hurled more ectoplasmic blasts. He tried to get in close again but the ghost brushed him off with a pile-driver like fist.

The ghost smashed him into the lake again but this time Danny had sort of seem it coming and had ridden it down into the water without fighting it. He came shooting out of the water almost as fast as he went in. He grab hold of T'Keisha's ankle and held on as the ghost thrashed her about.

With all his strength he climbed up her leg until he could throw an arm around her knees. From there he lashed out with a series of blasts that seemed to pain the ghost. While it was somewhat distracted he pulled herself up higher until once again he was wrapped around her waist.

The blasts weren't doing it and without some help from the shore he wasn't going to able to pull her free the way he had with Tucker. It was a desperate gamble but there didn't seem any other choice. He pulled himself up higher, until he had an arm under her shoulders. T'Keisha's head lolled on his shoulder, giving him a clear view of the ghost's headless shoulders and the two glowing orbs. He took a deep breath and concentrated, reaching deep within himself. He found a sound, a vibration, a stream of energy rising from his stomach, reverberating in his throat and bursting out of his mouth in an undulating wail. It struck the ghost with a shattering force. It traveled past the ghost, reaching the shore where trees exploded into splinters from its force.

This was Danny Phantom's "ghostly wail." A power so immensely powerful that most times he dared not use it. But against this ghost he did not know what else to do. The wail drained energy from him at a prodigious rate but during it's brief sounding the ghost wavered, blurred, seemed on the verge of dissipating on the spot.

Danny hoped that T'Keisha was sufficiently sheltered from the sound. Later Danny realized that he had completely forgotten about Sid and Aetheria in the canoe below him. It was only luck and his elevation that kept them from harm as well.

With his last bit of energy Danny pulled away from the ghost, dragging the girl with him. The ghost tried to hold on to her but its fingers, weakened, dispersed by the ghostly wail, slid around her. With a final jerk Danny burst free, T'Keisha in his arms. With a scream of rage the ghost shrunk into a glowing whirlwind that rose through the sky and disappeared into the glow from the moon.

Danny sailed high into the air before plummeting down to crash into the lake. Unconscious, in his human form again, he sank towards the bottom. Suddenly he felt a thrashing in the water. Someone had dived into the water and was swimming down to them. He tried to open his eyes to see what was happening but the effort was too much. He felt someone grab hold of him and T'Keisha and begin to pull them to the surface.

For an instant he was content to let who ever this was do all the work of rescuing him, then he remembered. He had changed back to Danny Fenton after using the ghostly wail. But Danny Fenton wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the lake. He could not let anyone see him in his human form. With a great act of will Danny changed back into his ghost form, slipped out of the hands of his rescuer and flew -- invisibly past the edge of the lake, safely out of sight of anyone down there before turned human once again. He took a step and fell on the grass, too weak to even stand up. He lay there panting, aching with a thousand and one pains.

Finally he felt strong enough to push himself up and scramble to his feet. He limped down to the beach, pausing long enough to pick up the bundle of Tucker's clothes that he had cached before going to fight the ghost. He arrived just in time to see Aetheria and Sid beach the other canoe and carry T'Keisha ashore. Sid must have been the one who dove into the lake; he was drenched in water while Aetheria was merely damp from her dunking.

"Hey. What's up," he asked limping through the sand.

"Danny!" the other Sam called. "You missed all the excitement. It was awesome!"

"Did you get the Camp Ranger?" Abigail asked.

"Uh -- no. Was I supposed to?"

"We thought you had gone to get the Head Ranger," Aetheria filled in. "Where were you?"

"Slacking like all Fenton's, I'll bet," he heard Abigail mutter.

"I tripped over a root while running down here. I think I sprained my ankle. I've been limping here as fast as I could."

Abigail grunted in disbelief.

"How are Tucker and T'Keisha?" Danny asked, trying to change the subject.

"They seem to be OK, but maybe in a trance or something. They're not responding when we talk to them." Sam replied. She was holding T'Keisha, whose head was lolling back limply.

Just then the black girl coughed weakly, rolled her head around a bit then tried to sit up.

"Whoa, whoa, easy," Sam said to her.

T'keisha's eyes flickered open. She looked around blurrily for a moment "What's going on?" She whispered, too weak to speak louder. "Where am I? What are you guys doing here?" With a weak cry, she realized that she was naked and tried to cover up. "What are you doing? This isn't funny!" she cried, burying her head in her arms.

Sid ran over to where T'Keisha's clothes are been dropped earlier and brought them back. He dropped most beside her but opened up her T-shirt, shook out any sand and tenderly laid it over her like a blanket. T'Keisha clutched at it but continued crying.

"You were attacked by a ghost," Sam said to her softly. "We rescued you and Tucker from it. You're among friends."

"Tucker!" T'Keisha spat. "It's all his fault. I should never have listened to him!"

"Me!" Everyone turned to find Tucker sitting up on the beach. He had lost his glasses somewhere in the night's excitement and was squinting now at everyone. "It was your idea to sneak on after dark!"

"I did no such thing, Tucker Foley," the girl snapped. "It was you with your sweet talk and lies and...and..." she began crying again, unable to finish her thought.

"Sweet talk?" Tucker wondered.

"It's the ghost," Danny told him. "You were 'overshadowed'."

"Guys! A little privacy!" Aetheria barked. "You take Tucker over there somewhere and cover his shame while we get T'Keisha dressed. Can't you see she's in distressed!"

Danny handed Tucker his clothes while the others kind of shielded the naked geek as he walked off a ways. Danny remained behind.

"You, too!" Aetheria commanded.

"I just wanted to explain to..." Danny protested

"Later Danny, " Sam put in. "Let her get dressed, then you can explain. Give her a change to settle down. It's a little hard to listen to someone when you're not wearing clothes!"

"Oh... gosh, I'm sorry, T'Keisha, I just wanted to explain..."

"Go already!"

Danny hurried over to where Tucker was sitting, pulling on his shoes. "You OK, Tuck?"

"As well as one could hope after waking up naked on a beach feeling like I've been through a war. I don't know what T'keisha's telling you, but she's lying. I never asked her out tonight."

"Oh, come on," the other Sam scoffed. "You two have been attached at the hips all day. Like you weren't trying to get to First Base?"

"Or third!" Sid teased.

"No! Well, maybe I wanted to but I wouldn't... Danny you believe me, don't you?" Tucker was starting to look more perplexed than angry in the full moon's light.

"Hey, Danny! If Tucker's decent, come over we need to talk," Sam called out. Tucker scrambled to his feet and the boys walked back to where the girls were waiting for them.

But before they could get over there T'Keisha pushed her way past the other girls and stalked off towards the cabins. After a moment Aetheria took off after her.

"That didn't go well," Sam observed as Danny's group arrived. "Maybe after a night's sleep she'll listen to reason in the morning."

"Could someone at least explain to me what happened?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, sure," Danny said.

"While that's going on, we ought to see about getting these canoes put away," Sam said to Sid, the other Sam, and Abigail.

"No way,' Abigail protested. "I want to hear this, too. Fenton wasn't even here and he's going to explain what happened?"

The two boys agreed.

Look, it's almost sunrise," Sam argued. "We need to get these canoes put away and back to our cabins before anyone gets up and we get caught. The explanations are wait until later."

After a bit of grumbling the boys picked up the canoes and carried back into the storage shed, replaced the paddled and seat cushions and snapped the padlock shut.

They hurried off to their cabins, just as they were separating to go to their individual cabins Danny stopped Abigail.

"Thanks for all your help tonight," he said.

"Why are you thanking me? You weren't even there. Your friend should be the one thanking me for saving his skinny butt."

"You helped my friend and that means a lot to me." Danny persisted. After a pause when Abigail didn't say anything, Danny added. "Now that you've had a chance to fight a ghost, still plan to become a Guy in White?"

"Woman -- woman in white! Yeah it was kind of fun. I'm glad your girlfriend invited me."

"She not my girlfrie..." But Abigail had already turned away and was running towards her cabin where Sam was waiting, holding the door open. Danny turned and run to his cabin, carefully and quietly locked the door and crept into his cot. Tucker was already in his sleeping blanket.

"Danny, just one question," he whispered, "Did you just save my life tonight?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Thanks, you're the best."

Danny might have said more but sleep, like a draining bathtub, sucked him down and out in an instant.


	11. Breakfast of Champions

Tucker splashed some water on his face and looked into the mirror. He squinted to bring his blurry vision into focus. A back-up pair of his glasses were balanced on the edge of his sink, the other having been lost in the night's activities.

"Man, I feel like my parents look when they get up in the morning!" He groaned and splashed some more water on his face. "No wonder the first thing they do in the morning is put on a pot of coffee. I could use some about now."

Danny, toothbrush in his mouth, grunted in agreement. He spat and rinsed. "Wait, you drink coffee?" Danny asked.

"My parents won't let me. Says it will stunt my growth or something. Honestly, I think my growth is already stunted. I need something to wake me up."

"I know what you mean, I couldn't sleep after we got back."

"Are you kidding? You were snoring within five minutes. I was the one who couldn't sleep!" Tucker protested. He soaked his washcloth in cold water and buried his face in it. Through it he continued. "I can't believe I let T'Keisha talk me into..."

"Shhh, here comes Dash."

"Get moving, you two," the counselor snarled. "We've got a big day ahead of us and I want each and every one of us at our best." He snapped a towel in Tucker's direction, though being careful to miss.

Danny and Tucker quickly finished dressing.

They left the cabin and couldn't see Sam anywhere waiting for them. She was usually the first one out but then she was an annoyingly cheerful morning person. That always confused Danny. Weren't Goth's supposed to be night people, and surly ones at that?

They waited a couple minutes in case she was late, then headed down to the dinning hall by themselves.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, cream of wheat, applesauce and a couple slices of Texas Toast. They grabbed cartons of milk from the cooler and looked for a place to eat.

They had barely found an empty table and sat down when Sid and Sam from their cabin sat down beside them. Larry, a small kid who usually hung around Sid joined them as well.

"Man, last night was awesome," Sid said, slapping Danny on the back. "Sorry you missed most of the fun down on the beach."

"That's what I get for running in the dark," Danny answered, 'Tripped and sprained my ankle."

"You going to be OK for the Olympics today?" the other Sam asked.

"Oh, yeah, I feel fine. My foot doesn't hurt me at all."

"Righteous, dude!"

"Man," Sid was saying around a mouthful of crew of wheat, "I thought we were going to catch them in fragrance indelirious."

"In what?" the other Sam asked.

"He means inflagrante delicto," said the real Sam as she set her tray down next to Danny, elbowing Sid aside to make room for her. "It's Latin for "caught in the act" and no, you did not want to."

"But it would have been cool."

"No, it would have been mortifying." Sam insisted.

"Why does everyone talk like I'm not here?" Tucker wondered.

"We know you're here, Tuck," Danny said. "At least I do."

"My grandfather caught some people in the act, once." Larry, the kid sitting next to Sid spoke up. He looked around nervously for approval before continuing. "When my grandfather retired he bought a little farm out in the country. It had an old orchard in it. So he started fixing up the orchard, selling the apples and making cider. He made really great cider. It was almost like drinking applesauce..."

"Eww" The other Sam apparently wasn't much of a fan of applesauce.

"Anyway one day he went to spray the trees for insects when he saw this big hairy butt in the grass. He shouted at them. They fled, I guess. He didn't actually tell me the story, I heard the adults talking about one night when they thought I was in another room."

"He should have sprayed them with the insecticide." Sid suggested.

"Are you nuts?" Larry said heatedly. "That stuff was awful. He wouldn't let me within a hundred yards of the orchard when he was spraying. And he wore a raincoat, and rain hat. big rubber gloves, boots, goggles and a respirator. He said the stuff washes away after a month but..." he shrugged his head. "I always made sure to really wash the apples before eating them."

"That was sure no apple orchard last night," the other Sam said. "Is this, like, what you do all the time?" he asked Danny. "Man, what a night. We were, like, whaling on that ghost with board and sticks and stuff! It was so awesome!"

"You were getting thrown around like a bunch of rag dolls," the ream Sam tried to remind them.

"That was nothing," the other Sam replied. "I've taken hard hits during football practice."

"On your head," the girl mentioned under her breath.

"I really want to thank you guys again for helping us last night," Danny hastily spoke up, just in case anyone had besides himself had heard Sam. "I don't think we could have rescued Tuck and T'Keisha without your help. But you know, we can't let the counselors catch on that any of us were outside after curfew. So we gotta keep this under our hats, if you know what I mean."

"Gotcha, Dude," Sid said loudly.

"Keep it down," Danny whispered.

"So how come you guys didn't wait for me?" Sam asked.

"We did, for several minutes. When you didn't show we figured you had already come down here."

"I would have waited for you guys!" Sam accused, then paused. "We were spending a lot of time talking to T'Keisha, she's still pretty shaken about last night."

"How is she?" Tucker asked, concern in his voice

"She would be better if you hadn't talked into doing something to totally stupid..."

"I didn't," Tucker insisted. "It was her idea!"

"No it wasn't..."

"Later." Danny warned, he nodded towards an approaching group of girls. Aetheria, Abigail on either of a very pale T'Keisha were heading for their table. They sat down across from Danny and Tucker. The other Sam moved around to make room for them.

In a soft mumble T'Keisha thanked them for saving her last night. She wouldn't look at Tucker.

In the awkward silence Danny looked down at his plate, looking for something to do until someone decided to speak, but he found that he had already cleaned his plate. He checked his carton of milk. It, too, was empty. With a sigh his pushed the tray with his plates forward and leaned his elbows on the table. His mother would have had something to say about that display of bad manners if she had been there. But she wasn't, one of the small pleasures of camp. Uncomfortable, he realized that everyone was waiting for him to say something.

He could see T'Keisha picking at her food but not really eating. With a sinking realization Danny knew what he had to do. Just as his sister expected him to talk to Scar, because he was the ghost guy, so he would have to be the one to explain it all to Tucker's friend.

"Guys, I've got to talk to T'Keisha, OK? Alone. Could you give me some room? I'll talk to you all a group later."

Sid and the other Sam and their friend Larry quickly got up and moved to another table. Aetheria leaned over and whispered something to the black girl before she moved away as well.

When Sam didn't move Danny turned to her and added. "You, too, Sam."

"Danny, you're in way over your head. You need my help."

"This is going to be hard enough without you hovering over my shoulder."

"I do not hover."

"Sam, please. If I blow this you can say you told me so later."

Reluctantly the Goth girl got up and moved a few tables over where Aetheria was holding court with Sid and the other Sam.

"That goes for you, too, Tucker."

"I'm staying. I've got an interest here. I want to know exactly what it is you're talking T'Keisha."

"Tucker, I can't talk freely with Sam around and I can't talk freely with you around. I'll talk to you later, but, please, give me a few minutes with T'Keisha, alone."

"I'm just trying to protect my interests..."

"You what?" T'Keisha snapped.

"Tucker. Go. Trust me. It will be all right."

Danny's friend got up and stalked off to the tray return window, dropped off his plate and continued out of the dinning hall. Danny sighed. Talking to Tucker might be harder than talking to his girlfriend.

He put a smile on his face and looked up. T'Keisha was scowling. "Look," she said, "If you plan to tell me that you've known Foley all his life and that he's your best friend and that you know he would never do anything wrong, blah, blah, blah, I'm not listening. He nearly got me killed last night with his lies and he doesn't have the manhood to admit it."

"Well, I am Tucker's friend and I have known him since kindergarten, and he wouldn't knowingly ever put you in danger, but that's not why I'm here." Danny reached into his pants and pulled out his wallet. He fished around for a moment then brought out a small photo. "These are my parents," he explained. handing the photo to T'Keisha.

The beads on her cornrows rustled softly as she bent over the picture. After a moment she looked up. "Do they always wear jumpsuits?"

Danny slapped his head in disgust, "why does every - freaking - body ask that?"

"Well, it is kind of weird."

"Never mind. I should be used to it by now." Danny fished in another compartment of his wallet and pulled out a business card. "This is who they are." He explained, handing the card to her.

"FentonWorks, LLC" T'Keisha read off the card. "Spectral Investigations, Spectral Dispossession and Defenses. 'We send ghosts packin'.'" She looked at Danny and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't get it."

"OK. I don't usually go around saying this but ...my folks are probably the pre-eminent authorities on ghosts."

"And" T'Keisha continued to look puzzled.

"And you don't grow up surrounded by the pre-eminent experts on ghosts without picking up a few things about ghosts." Actually Danny had made a pretty good job of ignoring his folks profession for the first fourteen years of his life. It wasn't until walking down the tunnel of the Ghost Portal on a dare from Sam, and being there when the trans-dimensional field initiated, tearing him to pieces and fusing every molecule of his body with ectoplasm, turning him into Danny Phantom, that he had become interested in ghost research, and even then, only as a matter of self-preservation. Most of what Danny know about ghosts stemmed from being one. Not that he could explain that to T'Keisha, or Abigail or his parents, or anyone who thought that ghosts were naturally evil.

"So?"

"There are a lot of things ghosts can do, some of which are pretty ...ah, bad." This wasn't going well, Danny thought. Maybe he should have let Sam stay.

"One of the things they can do is possess people. It's called 'overshadowing' and when they're 'overshadowing' people, the victim for the most part isn't even aware that they have been possessed. The ghost can get them to agree to do the most outrageous things and they won't remember doing it.

"Also, and this is kind of new to me, this ghost seems able to get people to forget about it. It's been here for fifty years, we think, causing who knows how much havoc and nobody every remembers it. That's why on the first day here Abigail insisted that there were no ghosts here. It had somehow selected erased all memory of its existence from people's minds. Or at least the people that matter, like the Guys in White, because some people still sort of remember it."

"And this is why Tucker didn't really do what I know he did?" T'Keisha accused.

"Yes." That admission only upset the girl even more. She was gathering up her things to leave when Danny hastily added. "No wait, please, hear me out."

With a sigh, T'Keisha sat back down.

"Think about it for a moment. Can you recall word for word what Tucker said, or is it all kind of hazy?"

"He did kind of talk about sneaking out."

" 'Kind of' -- that doesn't sound like a very firm memory does it? Do you remember what time he said to go, or where you were going?"

"I know it was his idea!"

"And you had no interest in making out with him?"

T'Keisha was slow to reply, "I guess we both kinda wanted to do that. You don't know how hard is it to find someone who the same interested as me. Who isn't put off because I like to mess to computers and stuff."

"I know how hard it has been for Tucker to find anyone who likes him for himself. I've seen him hung up over a lot of girl who would never talk to him but I have never seen him so ...committed since he's met you. I'm kind of jealous that he's found someone he feels so strongly about. I'd like to find someone like that."

"What about you and Sam?"

"We just friends."

T'Keisha looked at him closely, disbelievingly. "Ok, if Tucker likes me that much, why did he talk me into going out to Make-Out Point? Or are you saying that it was my idea and the "ghost" has some how made me forget it?"

"Neither. That's the thing. Tucker swears up and down that it wasn't his idea and you swear it wasn't your idea. It's possible it was neither of you's idea.. Maybe you both were thinking real hard about it but I don't think either of you had the nerve to actually suggest it. I think this ghost could sense what both of you were thinking and put it into your heads that you had agreed to do this, when neither of had ever spoken about it. I'm not sure just what is going on but it seems like this ghost was looking for two kids in lust, to do, I don't know what, but probably to increase it's power because that's what most ghosts seem to do."

"It was going to kill us?"

"I think so."

"So all your friends last night saved my life?"

"Yeah."

"But why?"

"Save you -- no, the ghost. Abigail has a theory and my sister..."

"That's her in the picture?" "T'Keisha pointed to only other person in the picture not in a jumpsuit besides Danny.

"Yeah. Jazz's has dug up a lot of information about what we think is the origins of this ghost and they kind of fit together..."

"So if I wasn't in love with Tucker it would have been someone else, like Sharona and Gary or Aetheria and that guy?"

"I don't think Aetheria is in love with anybody. I think she just likes making-out. Who's Sharona and Gary?"

"She's the blonde in Sumac, about your height, wears her hair real short?

"Doesn't ring a bell. But what you're saying is right, if it hadn't been you and Tucker it would have been someone else."

"Would you have gone to rescue them?"

"If I had known about it. But I don't know if anyone else had friends that would have noticed that they'd snuck out or would try to find them."

"So if it hadn't been Tucker and me, if it had been someone else, they would probably be dead by now."

Danny felt troubled by that. He couldn't look at the girl across from him as he answered, "Yeah, probably. I hadn't really thought about that." But he knew she was right, the only reason the ghost had been thwarted last night was because he was Tucker's friend and had sensed that his friend was in trouble.

"Abigail says this is some kind of poltergeist, that's a ghost that drawn to awakening sexual urges in kids. Usually it manifests itself through a series of pranks. There seems to be a lot more to this ghost than that. I mean it explains a lot about last night but not everything.

"Now my sister did some internet searches for me. Fifty years ago tonight a camper here named Ben Green died. Some think he was murdered others say he committed suicide. I -- we discovered an abandoned cabin the day before yesterday when we were camping up on the ridge. When I walked into the cabin I had a vision of someone hanging from a rope so I think he committed suicide there in that cabin. But the thing is someone cut off his head and dump is body into the lake..."

"Ewww. I don't think I can ever go swimming there again."

"Well, it was fifty years ago... Anyway: death's like that are every traumatic and stuff like that are what forms ghosts. It's like a ball of energy that's got all knotted up in itself and came unravel. Dumping it's body in the lake formed a nexus, a kind of anchor, that the ghost constantly returns to."

"So I was on the lake because the ghost was trying to take me to that spot in the lake where it's body had been dumped?"

"That's what I'm guessing."

"So what happened to my clothes. Why was I naked?"

"It used your clothes as a lure to get us to move away from the lake but I'm not sure if it did that because it knew it needed to make a false trail or whether it needed you naked and the clothes are just available."

"You don't think...we did it, do you?" T'Keisha asked, paling at the thought.

"I don't know. I honestly don't. If you can't remember, I'm sure Tucker can't either. If a bear farts in the woods and there's nobody there..."

"This isn't some fart joke, Danny. Getting, you know...that's serious."

"I'm sorry. I don't know. I mean... I don't know what to say. You could talk to the Nurse..."

"She'd tell the Head Ranger and certainly my momma." T'Keisha buried her head in her hands. "What am I going to do?"

"I don't know. I wish I did. Look, Aetheria seems like she's been through all this before...I mean about making out and stuff. Maybe she can help you?

"That's the girl with all the piercings?"

"Right."

"Oh, Lord, I do not want to end up a teenage mother. I promised myself that that would not happen to me."

"Maybe nothing happen."

"But what if it did?"

"Then go to the Nurse."

"What if they don't believe me. What if it gets Tucker in trouble."

"If it means that much to you, the six of us will go with us to the Head Ranger and telling her about last night. And the night Butterfly went crazy -- that was the ghost, too. Abigail can get her father -- he's a Guy in White -- to come out and inspect the camp. Ghosts gets extremely powerful around the anniversary of their death -- which is today -- so I don't it can hide itself from a government scan. You'll see the doctor and they'll take care of what ever happens."

"But you 'll all be in trouble."

"To make you feel better I would do this. I know Sam would, too. And Tucker. Aetheria likes to be in trouble. Abigail we'd have to do some talking to because she doesn't want to bring in her father, but I'm sure we can bring her around. I'm not sure about Sid and Sam, the other Sam. But it doesn't matter because we've already go so many people willing to confirm what happened last night."

"You do that for me?"

"Yes."

"I don't know. I don't want to be a bother..."

"At least talk to Aetheria before you make up your mind."

The girl silently nodded her head.

"I guess I'd better go have a talk with Tucker and the other now. Want to come along?"

She shook her head. "I've got a lot to think about."

Danny picked up his tray and stood up to leave.

"Oh, Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did that kid kill himself, if that's what he did?"

"I can't imagine why anyone would any to do something like that. There's some reports that he was being picked on but I get picked on at school all the time and I've never thought about killing me."

"Do you think he was upset because some girl rejected him?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I get picked on, too, for being a geek, picked on a lot, actually, but last night it was like the ghost was picking on the ...(she blushed) ... horniest ... kids in camp."

"You might have something there," Danny admitted. "I'll E-Mail my sister and see if she can pick up anything on that angle." He turned to go.

"Danny? What about today?"

"Today?"

"Will the ghost be back?"

"We'll just have to be ready if it does."

Danny left the dinning hall and found the other sitting under a weeping willow tree near the entrance. He went up to Aetheria first and whispered in her ear. The punk girl got up and went to talk to T'Keisha.

Sam had been sitting next to Aetheria. As her friend went back into the dinning hall she turned to Danny and asked, "How did it go?"

"I feel like I need a cold shower." then walked over to Tucker to start the whole conversation all over again.


	12. Before the Food Fight

"_You are by far the worst pirate I've ever heard of." _Some guy who's name I can't remember

"_Ah, yes, but you _have_ heard of me."_ Captain Jack Sparrow

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

When they got back to their cabins after breakfast they found Mrs. Doi and Shortie parked at a picnic table that had been pulled to the front of the clearing. On it were several piles of green T-shirts. Shortie waved them over and Mrs. Doi began handing out the shirts.

"During the games," she explained, "each team will be wearing their Team T-shirts. We'll be competing individually in some games and as a group in others but in either instance today we'll all be competing for the Team. The team with the most points at the end of the Games gets a trophy."

Shortie held out some printed papers. "Here's an outline of the day's activities. As you can see there's a big campfire tonight. We'll be sitting there as a team, so be sure to wear your T-Shirts there as well. Remember, we're here to have fun, but, of course, we want to win!"

Danny came out of his cabin a few minutes later wearing his T-shirt and some old jeans that he had cut off just below the knees. The jeans had frayed over time so the pant legs looks like they were fringed with a beard. He was there in time to see Tucker and T'Keisha come back from the dinning hall. They weren't holding hands but they were walking together. That seemed hopeful to Danny.

As T'Keisha went into Hemlock cabin Sam came out. She joined Danny at the picnic table. Sam was wearing black bicycle pants with her green t-shirt, and woven hemp sandals. She started lathering sun block on her very pale legs.

"They not black." he said.

"What?"

"Your toenails, they're not black."

Sam looked to see what he was talking about. Her toes were painted a reddish plume color. "I don't always wear black, you know. Not like some people I could mention."

"Is that green on the edges? How did you get such a thin line of color?"

"It's layered, Danny. When did you become so interested in my toes?"

"I was just noticing, is all."

"I painted my nails green first and after that dried painted the plum on top, making sure to leave just a little bit of the green showing. It's the sort of thing you do when you have a whole evening in a cabin without television." Her voice sort of trailed away as she noticed that Danny was surreptitiously scanning the clearing. Sam wondered who he was looking for. Just then Abigail came out of the cabin and his eyes sharpened by like a setter's finding quail. The would be "Girl in White" was wearing tan short-shorts with something written on the back in blue and black sequins. Danny squinted, trying to read what the message.

"Why don't you go over and ask to read her butt." Sam suggested.

"What?" Danny jerked up. "I wasn't staring."

"R-i-g-h-t. I wonder if Mrs. Doi is going to have another conversation with her."

"It says, 'BRATTitude' if you must know," Aetheria said as she slid onto a seat next to Sam. "Pretty tacky, if you ask me,"

"Sounds more like truth in advertising" Sam snorted. "A Brat with attitude."

Tucker soon came out their cabin and hung around Cabin Hemlock until T'Keisha came out. He was wearing his usual cargo pants with his green T-Shirt. The T-shirt that fit him like a tent. T'Keisha was wearing a divided skirt of a lime green. It didn't go well with the forest green of the T-Shirt. They started out to the beach.

"I thought we were all supposed to wait here and go down to the beach as a group," Danny said.

"I heard that Dash wanted to give them some extra instruction for the three-legged race." Aetheria explained.

Sid and the other Sam soon joined them. Sid was wearing a pair of gym shorts with "Gratiot Central" printed on the side. The other Sam was wearing baggy shorts that made him look like a six year old. "When are they going to get the show on the road?" he wondered.

The wait, in fact was nearly over. A few minutes later, Booger and Porcupine came out of their cabins herding the last of the kids. They formed them up in rows of four and, carrying a green pennant, lead the way towards the beach. Booger tried to lead them in some songs but the only ones he knew, like "Mademoiselle From Paris, France" were a trifle ribald. Mrs. Doi shushed him, then lead them in a few cleaner songs.

Danny was astonished when they got to beach where the games would be held. Mr. Doi's farm hands had brought around a tractor with a drag to rake and smooth the sand, There was no trace of the furious activity out there scant hours before. If it hadn't happened to them, they would never have believed a life or death struggle had taken place.

Four canopies had been set up at different corners, Booger lead them to one and planted his pennant in a holder that had been mounted in the sand.

"This is Team Green's pavilion," he announced. "Between games we should return here. If it gets too hot you can cool off in the shade under the canopy. There's also a cooler of water in the corner and a chest of gatorade (™) if you start to feel dehydrated. It'll be a just a little bit before the game so make yourself comfortable. Just don't wander off too far."

Danny, Sam, Aetheria, Sid and the other Sam plunked themselves down in a group at one corner of the pavilion. Off a ways they could see Tucker and T'Keisha, one leg bound together getting chewed out by Dash. The tall black girl seemed to be wilting under Dash's haranguing.

"Hey, welcome to Team Fenton," Sid called out, motioning for Abigail to sit down with them.

"Team Fenton?" she grumbled as she lowered herself to the sand. She was still wearing her yellow short-short so Mrs. Doi must not have objected. "Why does the team get to be named after him? He wasn't even at the beach last night -- until after the fight was over."

"I was..." Danny stopped. He was about to say he was, too, there, until he remembered that he had been there as Danny Phantom, not Fenton. "...trying," he concluded lamely.

"It's Team Fenton because it was his idea," Sid unexpectedly offered. "If it wasn't for Danny none of us would have been out last night looking for Tucker and his friend, and who knows what would have happened, then. So , yeah, this is Team Fenton."

"But I'm the only one here with weapons," Abigail protested. "I'm the only one here who was prepared."

"Let's take a vote," Sid said. "Who's in favor of 'Team Fenton,' raise your hands?" Outside of Danny who felt that the others should decide, and Abigail who was glowering, everyone else raised their hands.

"Team Fenton it is." Sid turned to Danny, "So, boss man, what's the first order of business?"

"We need to plan for tonight," Abigail said.

Danny, though had been watching Tucker and T'Keisha. Dash had not stopped yelling at them. He looked up at the others, "I'm going to get them away from Dash."

He stood up and started walking across the sand. It was early morning. The sun, though still low in the sky, was already piling on the heat. The entire camp appeared to be here, sitting around at their various tents. Mr. Doi's stable hands were measuring off the beach and painting lines in the sand. They had laid out an oval course for races, and a rectangle that would be a soccer field.

"I'll go with you," the other Sam said jumping to his feet.

"Thanks," Danny said, "but you don't have to. You'll only get in trouble with Dash. I'm used to it so it doesn't matter to me."

"I know a bully when I see one; I used to be one."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Things were going bad for me until my counselor suggested that I 'was expressing my anti-social energies in socially inappropriate ways' and maybe I should try out for football."

"And?"

"He was right. After an afternoon of slamming bodies or hitting the tackling frame I felt tired but refreshed. I didn't feel a need to beat up other people to make me feel good about myself. It was the best advice I've ever gotten."

"Dash is a football player, too. I wonder why it hasn't worked for him?" Danny wondered.

"Some people are just asses," The other Sam said.

They were close to Dash by then.

"Hey, Dash," Danny called out. "Leave them alone. We need to talk to them over there," he motioned back to where the rest were sitting.

"Get lost, Fen-tonie. "I intend to win the Camp trophy this week and these two losers are not going to mess up my chances."

"Yelling at them isn't going to make them any better."

"This is none of your business, twerp, so butt out."

"Come on, Tucker, T'Keisha, we're going." Danny tugged on Tucker's arm to get him started walking.

Dash reached for Danny, "I said to butt out!"

The other Sam seized Dash's arm and held him back. For a moment they stood sizing each other up. Dash was a Senior while the other Sam was at most a Junior. Dash may have had a couple inches on the other in terms of height and reach, but the other Sam was every bit as heavy as Dash. More to the point, he looked like someone who relished a fight. After a moment Dash shook off the other Sam's hand and stepped back. "They better not embarrass me today," he warned before stalking off to where a judge's stand was being erected.

With a couple of swift strides the other Sam caught up with the three as they hobbled towards their friends. The other Sam grabbed T'Keisha's free arm and held her up.

"There's a secret to the three-legged race."

"Don't enter?" Tucker hazarded?

"Too late for that. No, what you've got to do is coordinate your walking. Most people when they walk together tend to synchronize their stride. Without meaning to they do 'left-right, left-right,' but because you've got one leg tied together you've got to fight that tendency. Try chanting 'one-two, one-two.' On one, T'Keisha you move your left leg while Tucker moves his right, on 'two' you each move the other leg. Try it?

"One."

"Two."

"One."

"Two."

It took a few steps but Tucker and T'Keisha started walking more smoothly.

"The other thing," the other Sam said, "is you've got to shorten your stride, T'Keisha, while Tucker needs to lengthen his. Each time you move you need to try to move the same length. That way you won't throw the other off.

"And my last bit of advice is not to race. You'll lose so much time trying to get up if you fall down that you're better off walking if that's the best you can do, then trying to run and falling down."

"Wow, you're really good as coaching." Danny said. "You ought to go into coaching."

"Nah," the other Sam said with feeling. "I've got a real problem with authority. If I became a coach then I'd have to start hating myself. You can see how that's not going to work."

"But, but... when you're the authority then...you, you don't have to have a problem with authority...or something."

"I know what you're saying, Danny, but it just doesn't work that way. I'd be just like Dash, I wouldn't know when to quit. So I don't start. Why don't we untie you two. I'm sure you're getting more than a little tired being roped together like that."

Danny quickly knelt and started picking at the knots in the ropes. The other Sam knelt down to help him.

"Wow, Sam, I don't think I've heard you say ten words the whole week before this."

"I don't like talking about myself, but I thought I owed you an explanation."

Once freed, the two kids collapsed in the sand just outside the circle of the others, only to find the circle shifting around to include them.

Danny sat down next to Tucker.

"You and T'Keisha OK?" Danny asked.

Tucker hung his head. "I don't know. I'm not sure I'm OK about last night." he said.

"It wasn't your fault, you were overshadowed."

"I know, but that doesn't make me feel any better. T'Keisha's...She says you explained it all to her but..." Tucker waves his arms in confused circles "I just can't believe I'd ask a girl to make out like that." he finished in a whisper.

"But you didn't, it was the ghost." Danny said.

"But the desire was there, that's what gave the ghost it's opening," Tucker protested. "If I hadn't been such a..."

"Oh, come on, Tucker," Aetheria interrupted. "If you hadn't been panting after T'Keisha you wouldn't have been human."

"But..."

"No buts," she continued. "It's good to be in love with someone and even better when they're in love with you."

"I've never done anything like that before."

"See, that's your problem.. You don't have enough practice!" Aetheria leaned over and rubbed her knuckles into Tucker's shoulder.

"Guys!" Sam interrupted. she asked the girl sitting next to Tucker. "How are you holding up?"

T'Keisha had gotten red in the face, though with her dark complexion it was hard to tell. "OK, I guess." she answered.

"Are we or are we not going to plan for tonight," Abigail interrupted.

"Our plan is, when the ghost shows up, to kick its butt," Sid said.

"You're an idiot."

"I'm an idiot that doesn't believe in worry about things you can't change."

Abigail was working up to a devastating come-back when Shortie came around, all knobby-kneed and long legs, like some kind of a camel and said the Games were starting and send them over to the speaker's stand when Ranger Camp, the Camp Ranger was waiting to address them.

The Head Ranger was a familiar figure to the campers. She made a point of visiting each team at least once a day, usually to deliver any mail and to be available for complaints or suggestions from the campers. Short, square, always in an impeccably crisp uniform, with short, almost mannishly cut hair she was often the butt of jokes about her being "too" manly, even after her husband, a tall, lanky fellow with a heavy tan and greying hair and stopped by for a visit. He was a naturalist at the local community college, Danny had heard. Aetheria had called them "Mutt and Jeff" after seeing them walk together, a comment so obscure that Danny had asked her to explain. A turn of the century newspaper cartoon strip. Not this century, the last century. Whatever. Danny vowed to look it up on the Internet later, after camp.

The "too mannish" crack was one hard for Danny to understand. His mother did all sorts of things other women didn't -- ghost research and development, traveled to Ghost /Ectoplasmic conferences around the world, fought ghosts, ran a corporation, cooked brownies, wiped his face when she thought it was dirty. For Danny it was stranger hearing Tucker's mother always deferring to Tucker's Dad because in Danny's family if his Mom made a decision and his Dad disagreed, he'd hear about it. Sam, too, was never afraid to give her opinion, which was one of the things he liked about her. In contrast, T'Keisha, who seemed to be a nice girl and all, always hesitated before expressing an opinion. Was she being too "girly"?

The Head Ranger was unloading a canned speech, welcoming everybody to the Game, explaining something of the nature of the games. Points would be awarded to each team according to how they finished in each game and the team with the most point would be declared winner and given a trophy. But she cautioned this was about having fun and learning to work together, and not about winning. Danny had to snicker at that. He was forever hearing people in school, as far back as Pre-K, saying that this or that was not about winning but having fun. But if it wasn't about winning why did they have a trophy for the winner, why were they passing out ribbons for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers. As long as there were trophies and ribbons to win, then this games were all about winning.

There were eight other adults on the stand beside the Head Ranger. They were wearing black and white stripped referee shirts. Sure enough Ranger Camp introduced them as local volunteers come to help judge the games.

With that the Head Ranger called out "Let the Games Begin!" and pulling out a whistle from around her neck, gave a shrieking blast.

The counselors lead their teams over to a starting line on the beach. The first game was a simple race, down the beach, around a number of obstacles, and back to the starting line. The time from the first and last finisher for each team would be added together and the team with the best overall time would be declared the winner. "Try and not trample anyone," they were warned at the conclusion of the instructions. After making sure everyone was in line the Head Ranger unexpected pulled out a starter pistol and fired it. Danny nearly tripped over the kid on front of him who had flopped into a ball at the unexpected loud sound. He helped the boy up and started jogging towards the obstacles at the far end of the field.

Running -- well, athletics in general -- wasn't Danny strong suit, so he figured a steady jog would get him there and back somewhere in the middle of the pack. Running too hard would leave him winded and exhausted before the race was over.

The obstacles at the far end proved to be various pick-up trucks parked in the race track, forcing kids to dodge around them, cramping them in close quarters between the tails of the trucks and the sidelines of the course. He could see Sam in the distance amidst the lead clot of runners. T'Keisha, towering above all the other racers was further back but still well ahead of him. Tucker was a short distance ahead but as they turned and weaved their way back through the trucks and the goal line, Danny could see that his friend was already on his last legs. Risking a quick look behind him, Danny realized that he was the next to the last kid from their Team. He put on a burst of speed, passing Tucker and a couple of the younger Team Green members before crossing the finish line and collapsing flat on his face. Moments later Tucker fell down next to him, wheezing like an asthmatic whale.

"Come on, Fen-tonie, Geek Boy, get up. There's a lot more challenges to do today. There's no time to panty-waists!" Dash kicked sand in their faces has he strode up. With a groan Danny climbed to his feet, then extended a hand to help Tucker get up.

They staggered over to the Team Green pavilion where Porcupine was explaining the next game. This she called the "Tea Service Carry." Each member in turn would race across an open space to a table fifty feet away. There they would find a lunch room tray and a plastic cup. They were to fill the cup with water from a bucket on the table, place the cup in the tray and carrying the tray race back to the other side without spilling the water and dump it into a bucket there. Then the next person in line would race over and pick up and tray and so on for thirty minutes. Team members might have to go back and forth two or even three times. At the end of the thirty minutes each buckets would be measured and the team with the most water in the bucket would be the winners.

When everyone was lined up and ready the Head Ranger again fired her starter pistol. The first people running across the sand ended up with the cup tipped over and a tray full of water, which they nonetheless drained into the bucket. People who dropped their cups had to go back to refill it. There was lots of screaming and shouting as team members encouraged each other to run or walk, or walk faster or be more careful. The loudest voice of all was Dash's, encouraging, coaching but too often hectoring and belittling those he felt weren't doing a good enough of a job.

When Danny's turn came he raced across the sand, filled his cup, turned and fell down in a rut that had been dug by so many people turning on the same spot. He popped back up, refilled his glass and power walked back to the bucket. He felt pretty good that most of the water was still there when he poured it in.

"Hey, Fenton, try to stay on your feet next time!" Dash shouted at him.

With a glower Danny went to the back of the line to wait his next turn.

It seemed like almost no time at all had passed when the Head Ranger's gun sounded again. A yardstick was thrust into each bucket and to Danny's surprise Team Green was declared the winner, by a scant half-inch!

The kids trooped back to their pavilion and collapsed while the farm hands carried away the tables and set up the next contest. Most of the kids lined up for a drink of water then flopped in the shade. The sun had really turned into a scorcher.

As the last of the tables were carried away the tractor snorted into life and came out, pulling its drag to level the sand again. As it chugged off the beach a couple guys came out and drove in a couple staked, then measured off one hundred feet and set up a second pair of stakes. A pick-up drove up to the first set of poles, it's bed mounded with gunny sacks.

"Danny, you can't put this off forever. We've got to talk about tonight." Abigail had squatted down next to him. But Danny wasn't listening. Squatting had stretched her shorts so tight than all he could think about was what keeping the "BRAT" from separating from the "Titude".

Before he could say anything Dash was passing among them chivvying them over to the truck where Booger and Shortie were holding piles of gunny sacks in their arms, passing them out to team members as they arrived.

Danny was climbing into his sack, trying to find a way to hold on to it and hop without falling over when he noticed Sam standing beside him. "What was Ms "BRATTitude" going on about?"

"She wants to plan for tonight."

"We probably should," Sam replied as she rolled up the sides of the sack in a practiced manner in her hands and easily stepped into the bottom.

"How do you do that?" Danny asked

"Pantyhose. You learn how to do stuff like that when you're a girl." she answered. "So what did you tell her?"

"Abigail? Nothing. My plan is when the ghost comes. to hit it with everything I've got."

"And the rest of us?"

"Stay out of the way."

"That's not much of a plan."

"I'm open to suggestions."

"Call your Dad."

"Not that one."

Sam took a few exploratory hops, adjusted her hold on the sides of the gunny sack. She hopped back to Danny. "OK, then, Call your sister."

"Jazz?"

"She could sneak out in the Specter Speeder, drop off a few heavy-duty blasters and get back with no one the wiser.

"mmmm" Danny grunted equivocally.

"Who else are you going to call? Vlad? Scar? Vlad doesn't help anybody but himself. Scar might help but the collateral damage is something we'd have to think about. Besides for all we know, she just might decide to conspire with the ghost to take over the world."

"I left her interdimensional cell phone at home with my other cell."

"Hey, Fenton. Listen up!" Dash barked, ending their conversation.

A sack race is pretty straight-forward. Because there were so many kids competing there would be six heats with eight campers from each of the four teams in each heat. Boys would race in one heat and girls in the next to make it more fair. Looking around him Danny didn't see where the boys had any natural advantage over the girls, or vice versa. Everyone looked equally ill-at-ease. Dash was pushing campers into the starting line for the first heat, then pulling them out as he saw which other campers from the other teams were be competing. He was apparently trying to win this race heat by heat.

Danny found himself pushed to the starting line. "Try not to trip over your own feet this time, Fen-Tone!" Dash snarled.

"Give it a rest, Dash," Danny called back. "You're sucking the fun out of the whole day!"

But if Dash heard, he didn't make any response.

The starter gun went off and Danny started hopping, cautiously at first, being more careful to stay up and in making any speed. But as he got half way across he found a rhythm and was able to increase the length and frequency of his hops. His last hop took him flying over the finish line to crash in pile on the sand. He was surprised to see that most of the other starters were still working their way across the field.

"I won?" he asked.

"Second." one of the refs told him.

"I finished second!" Danny breathed, elated. "I actually didn't suck at this!"

He pushed the sack off his legs and stood up, handed the sack over to one of the stable hands and joined the rest of the kids in the first heat in cheering on the second heat.

Sam was in that group and came flying across the sand. It looked like a tie between her and a member of Red Team. The refs conferred and finally awarded the blue ribbon to the Red Team. Dash was suddenly on the winner's end of the field, complain to the refs about their call. He was getting red in the face when Ranger Camp came over.

"The decision of the refs is final," she told him. "I've talked to you before about this, Baxter. It's only a game." Then taking him by the arm pulled him back to the other side.

What was that all about Danny wondered. He turned to find Sam and gave her a congratulatory hug. They sprung back almost as quickly as they hugged, "Eww, you're all sweaty," Danny said.

"Girls don't sweat, they glow."

"You're all 'glowy' then. You must be a quart low on the water, you're 'glowing' so much."

Sam laughed. "You weren't shabby in your race, either," she said.

"Second place, a personal best!"

Sid came over in the next heat. He spilled half away across and struggled to get back on his feet. Dash was yelling at him so much that Sid almost dropped his sack and marched back to Dash fist clenched, but he remembered where he was, turned to the finished line and limped across, the last in his heat.

T'Keisha and Abigail were in the next heat. T'Keisha's height worked against her. She had to bend over so much to grasp the top of the gunny sack that it was hard for her to hop and keep her balance. Abigail tried to hop too fast and nearly tipped over a couple times. Tucker and the other Sam were in the fifth heat. Tucker was trying to do some fancy footstep, more like running in the sack then straight-forward hopping. He tripped over his feet half-way across, rolled over and get back to his feet and finished the race with slow, lengthy hops. The other Sam did something even odder. He pulled up one foot and hopped across balanced on a single foot. And he did it with such speed and skill that he was first across the line. Aetheria ran in the last heat. She made no effort, taking small hops at a leisurely pace. Dash was screaming so much at her that he broke out in a fit of coughing.

Aetheria was flapping her T-shirt to cool over as she came over and joined the others, even though she was the least sweaty of the lot. "What fresh hell do they have in mind for us," she inquired. That turned out to be the Egg Toss.

Two very long lines had been drawn in the sand. Everyone partnered off and took their places on either side of the line. Counselors came down the line passing out eggs, making sure everyone was properly behind the lines and so on. It seemed like forever before everybody was ready.

The other Sam was just pass Tucker on Danny's right. "Any advice for winning the egg toss?" Danny called to him

"Don't catch the egg with you chin!"

"Any other advice?"

"Cup the egg when you catch it. It's the sudden stop that breaks them. Don't try to catch them one-handed." The other Sam called back. "But if you've never done this before -- expect to be covered in egg!"

When the Head Ranger's pistol fired Danny tried a high slow lob to Sam but it fell short. She had to almost dive over the line to catch it, one-handed no less. When it was her turn to lob it back to Danny her pitch was low and fast like maybe she was trying to hit him. Danny caught the egg next to his face and was astonished to find that it was still intact.

T'Keisha wasn't so lucky. Her egg hit her hand with a loud splat and sprayed yolk all over her arm. Tucker was crestfallen as the refs ushered him out of the line.

Danny's second toss was much better, it landed softly in Sam's hand without making her have to chase it.

After the third round of tosses there were only a dozen pairs of kids left. The refs had everybody take a step back so there was a longer range for the toss. Danny thought his toss had gone well but Sam had to step back to reach for it but as she did so her feet slide on some loose sand and she went sprawling. The egg smacked into the sand in a gooey mess next to her head. "Out!" a ref shouted as Sam shrugged her shoulders in apology.

They met at the end of the line and watched as Sid and the Other Sam battle it out with a couple boys from the Blue team. Whether it was from his football training or something else the other Sam had an amazingly deft touch when it came to catching the egg. The two teams backed up move after each toss until they were over thirty feet apart. Sid launched the egg in a high lob that the other Sam caught cradled next to his waist. Then the boy from the blue team tossed his egg. It, too, was high, but short. His partner leaped forward to catch it, landing on his face in the sand, a moment later the egg crashed down on his forehead. With a whoop the Other Sam threw his egg high into the air and ran over to Sid, grabbing him in a big hug. "Num-ber One!" they chanted.

Everybody grouped back at their respective pavilions, cleaned the egg off their faces where necessary and rested in the shade. Mr. Doi's crew cleared off the beach again, smoothed it down with the tractor and painted fresh lines for the last event of the morning -- the three-legged race.

Abigail came across again demanding that they have a have a meeting about fighting the ghost but everyone was too hot and tired. She stomped off as far away as she got get in the pavilion before squatting down away from them, leaving her "BRATTitude" clearly on display.

"You know, at some point we are going to have to have a meeting about tonight," Sam said to no one in particular.

The three-legged race was also to be run in six heats, because there were so many kids involved. Ribbons were to be awarded to the fastest couple from each team as well as a ribbon to the team with the best overall time. Danny and Sam choose to be partners.. They went over to the starting line where couple counselors were tying legs together. From there they hobbled over to the starting line. Danny could see Dash further down the line haranguing some of their other teammates. Tucker and T'Keisha were already in line a short ways away from Dash.

Abruptly Danny dragged Sam around and made for their friends, squeezing their way in between another couple. They'd barely gotten in place when Dash came up. Danny gave him an angry glare. Dash glared back for a moment, then someone bumped him and with an "Excuse me, Dude" the Other Sam hopped into place on Tucker's other side. He turned and gave Dash a fixed stare as well. After a moment the counselor moved on to criticize the rest of his team.

The other Sam smiled as Dash left, clapped Tucker on the shoulder and wished him luck. His partner was a small mousy girl with the unfortunate name of Katrina. Danny recognized her from around the camp but didn't really know anything more about her. He wondered if the other Sam had picked her intentionally or had she just been there when he needed a partner.

The race was a hundred yards long, a lot longer than necessary Danny thought. The Head Ranger's gun boomed over the lake and the race was begun. Tucker and T'Keisha were off in a flash, the sound of them chanting "one-two, one-two" trailing faintly behind them. Danny and Sam both tried with start with the right foot and lost valuable time arguing over who was leading. Eventually Danny let Sam lead -- because she was the stronger athlete. They caught up with the middle of the pack quickly and were hobbling towards the front as they crossed the finish line. They took fourth place, which was more than Danny ever expected. The other Sam was in fifth. He had effectively picked up Katrina and carried her while racing on just his two feet. Apparently he was better at giving advice than following it.

The surprise was Tucker and T'Keisha who had finished first in their heat! They had raced like a smoothly working machine, using T'Keisha's long legs to carry them forward, using Tucker's stronger legs to kick them forward when they touched down. Everyone from Team Green had surrounded the two, cheering them on. Tucker himself had nearly screamed himself hoarse by the time Danny and Sam had been able to work their way in close. They exchanged hugs, pounded each other on the back and screamed some more. The refs finally had to come in and move them on so they could run the remaining heats. And when Tucker and T'Keisha's time remained unbeaten at the end of the races it was time all over again for screaming and cheering.

That was the end of the morning half of the game. The counselors brought the kids around to their separate pavilions for a quick discussion about the afternoon events. These would be team sports as opposed to the all-camp events of the morning. There were four games to be played on the beach -- volleyball, soccer, the 400 yard relay and baseball. In the lake there would be water polo, freestyle swimming, a relay race and canoe racing. Campers were told to pick one land and one water sport. Danny didn't care to get wet that afternoon so he picked canoe racing and the volleyball for his land sport. Since everyone wanted to play volleyball he found himself reassigned to the 400 yard relay. As if adding insult to injury, Sam had chosen the freestyle as her water event.

With the assignments made and a few last notes about when to return to the beach that afternoon the kids were sent back to their cabins to clean up for lunch,

Danny was poking at the congealed square on his plate. Was is food? The advertised tuna casserole or some sort of mattress foam? Sam's vegetarian plate with its carrots and salad and cup of yogurt looked more appetizing than this.

He had stuck his head under a shower for a second back at the cabin and felt better for that but the heat in the dinning hall was oppressive. And it seemed like the kids were laughing and screaming louder than ever. At least he was sitting with friends and it kind of surprised him to say that. Tucker and Sam were there, of course, but Sid, Aetheria, the other Sam, T'Keisha and the little boy, Larry, were all there, too. Even Abigail was there, sitting on a corner, scowling because no one else wanted to talk about plans for that night. This was quite a change from last year when he mostly act by himself. He cut off another section of the "casserole" and drowned the piece in catsup. It tasted like a hot dog bun -- without the hot dog. Oh, well, that was better than before.

A commotion on the other side of the dining hall pulled his eyes away from lunch. Dash and a counselor from the red team -- "Bulldog" was it? -- were facing each other, looking like they were about to get into a fight. Danny had missed most of that had been said but the word "cheater" was floating in the air. Danny wasn't sure who had said it.

Mrs. Doi got up from where she was sitting with some of the other girl counselors and spoke to Dash. In the suddenly hushed dinning hall her words were audible to everyone.

"Such rudeness is unbecoming, Dash Baxter. You show no respect for your competitors."

"I was just teasing him, Mrs. Doi," Dash answered back. "The man can't take a joke."

"Then you should quit teasing him," Mrs Doi said, trying to pull Dash towards his seat. "If the joke is not shared then it just becomes bullying."

Dash shook her off. "The only reason Bulldog's so upset is that he's a loser and his team sucks at gymnastic."

"I don't cheat and I don't like being called a cheater." Bulldog took a step towards Dash. Dash, who was about three inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than Bulldog, just laughed. "Bring it on -- if you have the guts!"

Mrs. Doi reached down and grabbed a pitcher of ice water from the table next to her and dumped it over Dash.

"Hey, old lady, what's the idea!" he shouted, wiping the cold water out of his eyes.

"You were getting hot under the collar, you needed to cool down."

There was a quiet titter from some of the other counselors.

"Oh, yeah? Well, here!" Dash grabbed up someone glass and threw the water at Mrs Doi.

She stepped out of the way causing the water to splash on a girl further down the table.

The girl leaped up with a curse and threw the contents of her glass at Dash.

"She started it!" Dash hollered back, pointing to Mrs Doi. "Why don't you throw your water at her?"

"Because you're the jerk who got me wet." the girl said as she stomped off for some dry towels.

"Fat ass." Dash called after her.

"What do you call her, Dash?" Porcupine suddenly asked. She had been sitting next to the departing girl.

"Nothing," Dash replied. "She just got a big butt, that's all."

"Right..." Porcupine stood up, grabbed a pitcher and threw its contents on Dash. "You're a jerk. That's what you get for being a jerk." She stormed off.

Dash reached down and picked up a bowl of pudding and started to throw it but Mrs Doi, who had retreated to the side when the water throwing began, slipped in and grabbed Dash's arm.

"We do not start a food fight," she said.

"Get away from me," Dash snarled and shoved Mrs Doi hard. There was a scuffle of chairs behind him and before Dash could turn around three of the male counselors have thrown him to the floor and pinioned his arms fast. They dragged him to his feet and, kicking and cursing, carried him over to one of the exits to the dinning hall and throw him out. Dash was all set to charge back into the hall but the glare from the three guys still in the doorway suddenly convinced him otherwise.

Mrs. Doi was getting back to her feet from where she had fallen. Several of the counselors circled around her asking if she was all right. She waved them off, sat back down at her table, picked up her silverware and quietly resumed eating.

"Wow! Dinner and a show!" Sam quipped.


	13. Dropping the F Bomb

_This is either madness or brilliance_. Will Turner

_Strange how often the two coincide_. **Captain** Jack Sparrow

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

The schedule had an hour of free time after lunch. Abigail waylaid the others as they left the dinning hall for a meeting to plan for that evening's conflict with the ghost.

They met under a massive oak near the lane. The shade was a welcome respite from the stifling heat of the beach. There was a cool breeze coming off the lake. The eight kids sprawled under the tree in an interesting series of sub-grouping. Abigail took a commanding position next to the tree trunk. Sid stretched out near-by and Aetheria dropped down next to him, resting her head on his stomach. Danny, sitting with Sam and Tucker, was struck by the realization that just the day before she had gone out to Make-Out Point with some kid who was not Sid. For Danny who had never "made out" with anyone, the casualness with each Aetheria went from boy to boy was ... disorienting. T'Keisha was sitting next to Tucker, while the other Sam was sitting by himself.

"The first thing we need to do is inventory our weapons," Abigail began.

Faced turned towards Danny.

"What?" he demanded. "I came here to get away from ghosts, not to chase them like some people here."

"You didn't bring anything?" Abigail insisted. "Nothing at all?" Her tone implied that Danny had acted criminally negligent.

"I brought a thermos," Danny said sullenly

"Wow, now we can have hot soup while we're waiting to die," Abigail laughed.

"You don't put soup in a Fenton Thermos -- ," Sam began.

"There was that one time Danny did, but then Klemper was being very annoying -- oww!" Tucker looked under the table where something had sharply kicked him in the shin, then at Sam's angry face. "Uh," he muttered. "Nothing."

"The Fenton Thermos is a containment device. You won't see it on the market or demoed to the Guys in White," Danny explained. "If we're lucky we will be able to suck the ghost into the container before anyone gets hurt."

"Why didn't you bring it along last night?" Abigail asked.

Danny's face colored. A muscle in his cheek quivered as he ground his teeth.

In the awkward silence, the other Sam spoke up. "I suppose he wasn't thinking straight. I know if someone important to me were missing or in danger I wouldn't be thinking too clearly."

"I should have remembered it." Danny whispered.

"Water under the bridge, dude. Water under the bridge." Sid advised.

"Well, I was hoping for another blaster or something but this Thermos might be useful if it works like you say it does," Abigail said. She fumbled in her carryall for a moment and brought out something small enough to fit in her hand. "I also brought along this but outside of having the word "Fenton" printed on its side, seems to have no purpose at all." She laid something on the table that looked for all the world like a Yo-yo,

Danny's eyes bugged out. "Where did you get this!" He reached across the table and snapped it up, felt around the rim for a catch and popped open a control panel on the inside. He flipped a switch on the panel shutting down several small lights that had been on. Snapping the panel shut he sank back in his chair. His face, surprisingly, was beaded with sweat.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble your father is in for even letting this out of his sight?"

"A stupid Yo-yo?"

"Yes, a Fenton Yo-yo. It's a proto-type, it's not even in production. This was lent to the Guys in White agency for evaluation under so many layers of Non-Disclosure Agreements... If I were to tell my parents where I found this you father would be in such a world of trouble!"

"Stop making stuff up!" Abigail snapped. "Your stupid toy doesn't do anything."

"It forms a concussive explosions when it makes contact with ectoplasm. No ghost, no explosion. But it has a tendency to short out and cause explosions even when ghosts are not around. That's why it's still in prototype. It's too dangerous to use in the field." Danny was red in the face from anger, something Sam had never seen before. "I don't know who's more irresponsible, you for stealing anything you want from your father's office, or your father for not keeping his office more secure! Arrgh!" With a growl Danny jumped up and stalked away.

"Wait here," Sam advised and went after Danny.

The others watched as Sam argued intensely with Danny but he shook off her hand from his arm and struck off down the lane to their cabins. Sam came back and dropped down beside Tucker. "Perhaps you ought to talk to him," she said. "he'll really honked off."

With a pat of T'Keisha's hand Tucker got up and took off after Danny.

"So we have," Abigail continued as if Danny hadn't just stalked off, "one can of Fenton Ghost-be-gone, one Fenton Lipstick blaster, a Fenton Finder that doesn't find much and a "Thermos" that may contain ghosts. It's not much but I think we can make it work."

"I think you are in over your head," Sam criticized. "Your lipstick didn't have much effect last night. I think you ought to call in professionals."

"I'm not calling my father."

"Isn't there anything else we can do?" asked T'Keisha in a small, nervous voice.

"Tonight is the anniversary of its death," Abigail said. "Anniversaries are important to poltergeist like ghosts like this one. It will come back tonight because it has to come back. And since this is Friday the 13th, always a powerful day for ghosts, and a full moon, which my research suggests is also a power boost for ectoplasmic manifestations, it's going to be even more powerful then it was last night. But ghosts are the spirits of the dead who for some reason haven't move on to the Ghost Zone. Something has pinned or anchored it to this world. If we could find what it is anchoring the ghost to this world, to this camp, and destroy it," Abigail answered, "If we can destroy that anchor point then usually the ghost is immediately pulled into the Ghost Zone, never to return."

"What would anchor a ghost?" T'Keisha asked.

"It could be anything, as long as it was important to the ghost and important to its death." Abigail continued.

"So our best hope is to find and destroy this anchor?"

"If we knew what it was," the other Sam added.

"It's either a childhood sled or it's skull," Aetheria suggested. "Since it's not wintertime I suspect it's its skull."

"Sled?" Sid whispered to Aetheria.

"Rosebud," she whispered back. When he continued to look confused, she added, "later."

"That's right, they never did find it's head." Sam nodded. "But if they couldn't find it fifty years ago when it was first hidden, how are we going to find it today?"

"Never trust the police to do as thorough a search as they think they're doing." the other Sam said with the attitude of someone who knows these things.

"It's probably in the lake, where they dumped it's body," Aetheria suggested.

"Why didn't they find it then?"

"Well the body is large and nearly buoyant so it's easy to find, but the skull is small and heavy so it would lie close to the bottom of the lake and get passed over the by usual dredges."

"How do you know that," Sid asked.

"I watch a lot of CSI," Aetheria explained.

Sid shuddered. "Man, I like it too, but you, like, study it!"

"If I had a decent ghost-detector instead of this piece of junk Fenton Finder that came so recommended, we could do a sweep over the lake and find where the skull is located," Abigail complained.

"That's a lot of lake to cover,"Aetheria objected, and we only have this afternoon to search it. We need to really narrow our search area down."

"And it's going to be a little hard to explain why we've ditched the Games this afternoon, and gone canoeing without permission," the other Sam added. "I like the idea but I don't see how we can pull it off."

"I don't think the skull is in the lake," Sam said, quietly. "The other day, when we were up at that abandoned cabin Danny had a powerful vision of the ghost hanging in one of the building."

"Eww," T'Keisha put her hand to her throat and looked a little faint.

"We all had strong reactions to being in that cabin," Sam went on. "I'm sure that's where the ghost, or rather that boy, Ben Green, died."

"Right, and he hung himself which makes him a suicide, and suicidal ghosts are real nut jobs," Abigail interrupted.

"But I think it's more than just that. I think that's where the skull is." Sam insisted.

"It could be anywhere up there?" Abigail objected.

"It could be anywhere in the lake. But if it the skull were hidden somewhere up there by the abandoned cabins that would explain why the cabin's were abandoned, while the lake wasn't and isn't even considered haunted."

"So what?" Abigail questioned. "It would take us two hours to get up to those cabins with no guarantee we'd find the skull."

"There's no guarantee we'd find the skull in the lake, either," the other Sam suggested. "And I don't think we're going to be free any time today to go hunting. I think we ought to plan on fighting the ghost when it shows up tonight."

"Exactly," Abigail agreed. "I don't have enough Ghost-Be-Gone to spray the whole camp so I think what we're going to have to do is wait to see who the ghost is targeting, then while I distract it with the lipstick blaster someone has to rush in and dose the victim with Ghost-Be-Gone, then hope that with the ghost softened up some we can suck it into the Thermos, assuming Fenton's going to bring it down with him and not have a snitfit."

"Snitfit!" Sam snapped. "Snitfit!"

"Stop it!" T'Keisha cried out. "How are we ever going to stop this, this...ghost, if all you do is fight among yourself. "Just stop it!" She leaped up and race off towards the cabins.

"So much for Team Fenton," the other Sam said. "In fifteen minutes time you've knocked the team down by a third, and I'm not sure I want to hang around here listening to you put people down." Despite what he said, the other Sam made not effort to get up.

"T'Keisha's right, we can't keep fighting among ourselves," the real Sam said. "As much as I hate to say it, Abigail's plan seems like the best we've got. I'll make sure the thermos is there when the ghost shows up. Who's going to carry the Ghost spray? That's going to be pretty risky."

"I'll do it," the other Sam said. "I'm used to getting knocked around from playing football.

"I'll be there protecting your back, Dude," Sid offered.

"So," Aetheria said, sitting up from Sid's lap, "before we break out into another fight, let's agree to met down at the amphitheater before the ceremonies start tonight. Abigail will bring we stuff and Sam will bring this thermos thingy and we'll all do our best to kick butt when it comes." She stood up and dusted off her shorts. "Do you think Scooby Doo's mystery crew had this many fights when they were fighting their ghosts?" she wondered.

Tucker found Danny already far up the lane towards their cabins, walking at a stiff pace. He jogged to catch up, but seeing the set expression on Danny's face decided to not say anything. When they got to the cabin Danny threw himself on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Tucker sat down on his bed but Danny wouldn't acknowledge his presence.

After a while Tucker finally asked, "What's the matter, Danny? I've never seen you like this?"

Danny sighed. "You ever see that old western, High Noon?"

"No offense but I don't watch western. There aren't too many blacks in them."

"Yeah, true. -- In this movie there's this old man, the sheriff of the town and he's about to get married when he gets a message that a man he had sent to jail years ago has been released and is coming gunning for him. He's going to be there at high noon, you see, to have it out."

"What's the difference between high noon and regular noon?" Tucker quipped.

"I don't care. The point is that this old guy goes around trying to find people who will help him and no one will. It's all up to him. All up to him."

"You know Sam and I will be there for you. And the others, too."

"I know. I appreciate it. But seriously, Tucker, what can you do? This is my fight. I'm the one with the ghost powers. I feel like that guy in the movie. I don't want to do this but I've got to, it's my responsibility. And like that guy, all I can see if a big clock ticking off the minutes. Tick tick tick."

"So how did the movie end?"

"Doesn't matter. Look, all the other times I've fought ghosts they've jumped out at me unexpectedly. It was all react and fight. I never had time to think. I can't stop thinking about this, though. It's getting me down, and Abigail's going on how we need to plan -- as if there's anything we can plan to do that will have any effect." Danny sighed and closed his eyes.

Tucker stretched out on his cot as well. "I never thought of it that way before," he said. He stared up at the ceiling like his friend for a minute or two. "Dude, you can't keep thinking about this, it's just going to drive you crazy."

"How can I not think about this?" Danny asked.

"Think about something else. Think about the games this afternoon. Think about what a jerk Dash has been? You've got to stop thinking about the future since there's nothing we can do to change it."

Danny sat up on his cot. He ran his hands over his face squeezing it as hard as he could. "Yeah. Yeah. I guess I'd better go out and face the music."

The beach was filling up with kids returning from lunch when Danny and Tucker got there. A number of canoe had been dragged out to the shore of the lake. Dash and a counselor from the Blue team was waiting. Far out in the lake were a couple of small boats anchored well away from each other. A bouy with an orange and white striped pennant had been moved into about a hundred feet from the pier and even with the pier's end. Tucker drifted off to find his first afternoon activity.

After a time Dash came by and asked who Danny was partnering with for the canoe race. Danny hadn't even thought about it so took a quick look around to see who his choices were. The first person he saw Abigail. She's tied a knot in her T-shirt hem exposing her midriff. With a shudder Danny turned away before she had a chance of spotting him. On the other side of him was the other Sam. "You got a partner?" Danny asked.

The other Sam shook his head, "You want to do it?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, we're a team."

And that was that. Abigail ended up paired with a boy from Oak cabin that Danny didn't know. It didn't matter so long as he didn't have to go anywhere near her. Danny was trying hard not to think about the future but he was having a lot less success not brooding on the past.

The race was straight-forward enough. Six canoes at a time lined up on an imaginary line from the end of the pier to the near-by buoy. When the whistle blew they would take off as fast they could for the motorboat on the north side of the lake, round it, steer for the other motorboat and then come racing back to the pier. The first one back won, as long as they correctly passed around both motorboats.

When their turn came, the other Sam let Danny steer in the back, since as he said Danny "seemed to know what he was doing."

It took a while to get the canoes lined up to the judge's satisfaction. Canoes would drift forward then had to be backed up. But finally the refs whistle sounded a shrill note. And with that everyone dug their paddles into the water.

The other Sam's first stroke threw a huge string of water behind him as he jerked the paddle out of the water and plunged in again. The water splashed over Danny in an irritating slap. Danny tried to wipe the water off his face only to have another splash land on him. So much for his intent to stay dry!

They were pulling out in front but Danny worried that the race would be too long for the other Sam to keep up the pace. He called for the other Sam to slow down, to pace himself but partner just laughed. "I can keep this up all day!" he replied. Danny said nothing but wondered if he would have to start bailing before they got back to the finish line.

For a time two other canoes were keeping up with them or were slightly ahead. One was crewed with a pair of muscular older kids who were churning through the water with a lot of energy and little finesse. The other canoe was moving almost silently and without splashing by a pair of boys whose technique was beyond any other campers there.

Danny risked a look back and saw that a couple other canoes were close behind them while the rest were spread out while behind them. Danny was astonished that they were doing so well but when the two older boys started pulling ahead Danny stopped thinking and put his back into matching the other Sam stroke for stroke.

The older boys made the first turn a full length ahead of the others. It was a long haul to the next motorboat. For a time the older boys were pulling farther ahead but as the second motorboat neared their splashing became slower and less vigorous. The change in their pace was small, barely noticeable to the cheering crowds on the shore but Danny could see them slowing pulling up even, then passing them. When they came up to the second motorboat it was just the two canoes.

Danny found himself in a curious bind. The other canoe had the better paddlers. They looked to be as fresh, two-thirds of the way through the race as at the start. Danny himself was getting tired. His shoulders and back ached and his breath was coming in ragged gasps. But he knew he had enough strength left to get back to the shore. The other Sam seemed to be going on and on like the energizer bunny. It can to Danny that if they could just get a canoe's length lead on the others they could possible hold the lead all they way back to the finish line.

The realization was slow to dawn on Danny who never won races, but for once there was a chance, a real chance he and the other Sam could take this race. All he had to do was get in front of the other canoe.

And Danny knew how.

It wouldn't be sportsmanlike but it wouldn't be fair but it would be legal -- unless the refs disagreed. Sam would not like it, but Sam was not here.

Danny decided to go for it.

He called for the other Sam to start paddling on the right, which would push the canoe to the left. Danny himself shoved his paddle into the water on the left side and back paddled. Their canoe lost a lot of forward momentum but veered sharply left. They cross close to the motorboat, cutting off the other canoers, forcing them to give way. Danny and the other Sam passed around the motorboat with inches to space. The other canoe followed a moment later several feet behind them.

"Let's go!" Danny called to the other Sam, and dug in his paddle. He started calling "Go! Go! to set up a pace for them. Water flung from the other Sam's paddle laced far out over the lake.

For a long time it did not seem like the shore was ever going to get closer. Danny wondered whether he had miscalculated. Soon it was getting harder and harder to move his paddle but when he looked up again the pier was looming close.

Danny bore down again, pushing himself harder.

Abruptly their canoe slammed onto the beach, throwing Danny and the other Sam forward and nearly out of their canoe.

Danny laid down his paddle and slowly crawled out of the canoe. His legs were rubbery, threatening to collapse under him. But suddenly burly arms caught him up in a massive bear hug. The roaring in his ears that Danny thought was from being on the edge of passing out, turned out to be cheering fans. Someone was thumping him on the back in exhilaration. Danny forced open his eyes and looked at who was giving him such a bone-crushing hug.

He was looking to the face of Dash Baxter.

The stared at each other for a moment, then Baxter dropped Danny to the ground and stepped back awkwardly. "Good job, Fenton," he murmured, backing away. Danny didn't have time to worry about how embarrassing the thing was. The other Sam had turned around and grabbed up Danny in a hug, followed by a succession of others, boys and girls. It was enough to make Danny's head spin.

Then it all came to a crashing halt, as a couple refs came over and asked Danny and the other Sam to come with them.

The other team was claiming that Danny's sharp turn had fouled them. They demanded that Danny and the other Sam be disqualified. The refs questioned Danny about the race, whether he knew there was another canoe behind them and more. Danny answered truthfully. Yes. he knew another canoe was behind them. Yes he had turned unexpectedly knowing that he was forcing the other canoe to slow down to avoid hitting them. Then the counselors from the other team argued with the refs for a long time.

Dash was hovering near Danny and the other Sam. He seemed to be mad about the possibility that Danny and the other Sam would be disqualified. But finally the refs called them back and announced that they were ignoring the complaint. Danny and the other Sam were the winners.

Danny and the other Sam staggered back to the Green Team's pavilion where they collapsed on the sand. Someone handed them bottles of Gateraid (™) which Danny drain in one gulp. He laid back and closed his eyes.

It seemed only moments latter that someone bumped his shoulder waking Danny up. "You're wanted over at the relay race," Booger told him. Danny realized with a start that an hour or maybe two without him knowing it. As he staggered over to where Booger had pointed, Danny wondered if he would have the energy for the race.

Mrs Doi was waiting fot him when Danny got to the starting line of the track, Another heat was already in process. Kids were running around the oval marked out in the sand with white strips of lime. Another set of kids were waiting along a slanted line across the several tracks, waiting for the runners to catch up with them and hand off the baton they were carrying. Kids were standing along the lines of the track cheering the runners on.

The elderly counselor lead Danny over to three other campers who would make up the Green Team for the next heat. Danny recognized Adam, a tall, angular kid from Oak cabin and Sue, a stocky girl from Sumac. With a shudder of distaste Danny realized that the third member was Abigail.

"Are you, like, stalking me?" he asked.

"I wanted to play soccer but that dumb counselor of yours stuck me here."

"You, Soccer?" Danny asked incredulously. He couldn't imagine Abigail running non-stop for five minutes, let along for the length of an entire game.

"Yes, me! I like kicking balls around."

Adam snorted.

"I mean soccer balls!"

"R-i-g-h-t..."

"Children, children," Mrs. Doi interrupted. "We are here to win! And a team can not win if it is fighting among itself."

"Sorry," said Danny. Adam and Abigail chimed in as well. Danny was surprised that Abigail had apologized but there was something about Mrs. Doi that did that.

The relay was set up boy-girl, boy-girl to even out the times. Adam would go first, followed by Abigail, then Danny and Sue. After a few words about handing off the baton, mainly that the receiver starts running before the carrier gets there so they are going at half speed by the time they get the baton. Mrs. Doi emphasized that the carrier had to be sure the receiver had a firm grip on the baton before releasing it. Because if they dropped it they'd have to stop and pick it up before finishing the race.

The other race soon ended with a victory for the Red Team. After a few minutes if congratulations, the track was cleared and the runner for the next race took their places on the track.

When the whistle sounded Orange Team took off to an early lead. Adam lumbered around doggedly in third place. As they rounded the track the second runners set themselves in a narrow space next to the main track. When Adam passed a line drawn about twenty feet away Abigail started sprinting. Adam caught up with her easily and laid the baton in her backwards stretched hand. She seized on it and put on speed.

Danny was surprised to see that she could run well. He had put her down as one of those girls who never did anything more active than brushing her hair. As she neared the end of her section Danny got ready. The instant she passed the twenty foot line Danny took off. He was getting up to speed, glancing behind to see where Abigail was. He stretched his hand back, palm up and open waiting for the slap of the baton. It brushed over his palm once, siding away before he could grab it. Again he felt it brush his fingers, but not where he could wrap them around the stick. "Come on" he cried. A third time he felt the baton touch his hand. He closed his hand but even as his fingers curled up he could feel the stick slide through them.

Danny heard the thudding of Abigail's feet change their pace and knew she had stumbled. He risked another glance behind and saw her sprawled on the ground, the baton laying near by. Danny skidded to a stop and raced back, grabbed he baton from off the sand and turned to finish the race. The other three teams were far in front of him.

He ran as fast as he could; till he could feel a cramp growing in his leg. He closed the gap with the third runner by the time he crossed the twenty foot warning line and handed off the baton. Sue took off with a spray of sand. He vaguely heard a roar when she passed the third racer and another when she pulled even with the second place racer. But Danny was too busy gasping for breath to really pass attention. He staggered off the track so the runners wouldn't crash into him when they came in to finish.

Danny was standing on the sidelines, hands on his knees, still panting when a pair of large white sneakers planted themselves in front of him.

"You moron!" a too familiar voice bellowed at him. "You miserable piece of spit, You worthless boob! How could you drop the baton!"

Danny looked into Dash's inflamed face. "I didn't drop the baton, she never got it into my hand."

"Don't whine your excuses to me. I saw you drop it. You ..."

"Shut up, Dash," Danny said. "Just shut the ---- up!" Danny dropped the F-bomb. He couldn't believe he had said it even as he was saying it. Danny tried never to swear. But he had said it and it felt good. He stood up and walked around the big, blond counselor and kept walking.

"The game's aren't over, Fenton. You get your ass back here right this minute!"

Danny kept right on walking, off the beach and up the trail to his cabin. He throw himself on his cot and lay there. Soon he napped.

Vaguely he recalled voices filling the cabin later on. They were laughing and shouting happily. Showers were run, lockers opened and slammed. No one stopped to talk to Danny. It was like he wasn't there at all.

Soon the voices faded away, leaving the cabin again in silence. Supper time, Danny figured. He closed his eyes and slept some more, the weight of the world grinding down on his shoulders.


	14. Reaping the Whirlwind

"Jazz's not answering," Danny grumbled, closed the PDA and tossed it back to Tucker. "Where could she be?"

Tucker dived to grab the electronic device before it could fall on the floor. Danny's toss was good but Tucker always feared the worst when it came to his tech gear. As he hid it away in his knapsack he said, "Dude, it's Friday night. Where do you think she is?"

"Well, school's out so there's no homework. And her clubs aren't meeting again till fall..."

"Danny!" Tucker interrupted, "Are you even listening to yourself? Friday night. She's a girl. Where else would she be?"

Danny looked at him blankly. They were sitting inside Maple Cabin after supper, waiting until time for the big rally and awards ceremony later that night. The cabin was hot and stuffy, forcing the others to hang around outside. Danny, needing to make an emergency phone call, had dragged Tucker inside so he could use Tuck's wi-fi PDA.

"She out on a date! That's what I'd be doing if I had someone who would go out with me!" Tucker exclaimed.

"What about T'Keisha?"

"Did you get hit on the head or something today?" Tucker jeered. "Your sister Jazz is not home because she's out on a date. I told you this idea would not work, and it did not. Did you seriously think Jazz was going to drop whatever it is she's doing to sneak out with the Specter Speeder, whip down to Camp, drop off an armload of weapons and get back without your parents noticing?"

"I didn't exactly have any other plan." Danny protested.

"There's one person who will always take your calls, Danny."

"I'm not calling my Dad."

"Your Dad's really not very good about answering calls. Just for your information. I meant your Mom."

"Mom would never come down without Dad."

"Maybe she would. Maybe if you asked."

"I can handle this. Not to boast, but Danny Phantom is a lot more effective than an armful of Blaster."

"From what Sam was telling me, you were getting your butt kicked last night."

"I was not! Well, maybe. But I still got rid of the ghost last night and I can do it again tonight."

"Danny, we need help."

"I'm not calling in my father and be humiliated in front of the whole camp."

"Then call Abigail's old man."

"The Guys in White?"

"Sure. Let it rain on her parade. But they'll handle the ghost before anyone gets hurt."

"What if they spot me and not the Camp Ghost? Knowing them that's exactly the kind of bureaucratic screw-up they'd do."

"Danny, last night I was nearly killed. I am eternally grateful for you saving me and T'Keisha, but you've got to think about tonight. ...'Cause I don't think you want the death of any kid on your hands. We need help. Call your Mom, call Abigail's Dad. Call the Extreme Ghost-Breakers if you have to. Don't try to do this alone."

Danny sat quietly for a moment, not answer Tucker's plea. Then he dug in his pants pocket and pulled out the Fenton Yo-yo he had confiscated from Abigail.

"This is the catch to release the cover," he said, pointing to a microscopic break on the device's rim. "Flip this switch to arm or disarm the Yo-yo. The LED will show when it's armed. Wind it up like a regular yo-yo. It look and acts just like one -- until it strikes ectoplasm, Then it released an extremely powerful stunning shock. So be careful using it around me. I accidentally touched the covering when it was armed and got knocked out for an hour. I was just lucky no one entered the lab while I was unconscious. It's got an eight foot cord so be careful about that. And when it hits a ghost it's going to wobble a bit. That's part of the reason it's not gone beyond the prototype phase."

"Sure, dude." Tucker looked at the Fenton Yo-yo suspiciously. "So this is your plan, a stick of lipstick and a yo-yo?"

Danny bit back a sarcastic reply. He got up and turned away. "I'll be down at the amphitheater," he said over his shoulder as he left.

Mr. Doi's ranch hands were hard at work setting up the amphitheater when Danny got there. They had already set up the four pennants along the row of logs that formed the stands. Danny was tempted to sit down under the green pennant and just wait for the rest of the camp to get there. But if he did that Abigail might sit next to him and nag, or worse, Sam! So he kept walking around the edge of the field.

One man was in the center, stacking up splits of firewood in a neat square, then piled a a few more logs around its sides. He then picked up a small red can and started pouring liquid all over the wood. When the can was empty, he stepped back several feet and pulled out a box of matches. He struck one, waited until it had caught the wood stem good, then threw it on the pile. A massive ball of fire rolled up with a massive whoosh and a wave of heat Danny could feel even at his distance. Did his ears deceive him or did the guy at the fire also call out "Opa!"

In any case Mr. Doi was not amused because he was storming across the field from where he had been directing some men setting up a portable stage. "No!" he shouted. "Unacceptable! Who told you to use gasolene on a bonfire! You could have been killed!"

"Relax, Mr. D," the other man replied. "I know what I was doing. I've used gas to burn out fence-rows dozens of times. I know exactly how far back I have to stand."

"You may think you know what you're doing but I don't, and if I don't know what you're doing, you don't do it! Do you understand?"

"I didn't think..."

"You're not paid to think," Mr. Doi shouted, even though he was now standing next to his employee. "You do what I tell you to do or you don't do anything!"

With a shake of his head Danny walked on, out of range of their conversation. He was surprised by how angry Mr. Doi had gotten over what seemed to him like a little matter. He had always seemed friendly and accessible to the kids but it looked like he was just like every other adult Danny had met: demanding and bossy. It was sad reminder that life as a kid sucked. Or maybe it was just his life?

Danny wandered down to the beach, walked out on the pier and sat down. He pulled off his shoes and dangled his feet in the water. The beach was churned and rutted from the games earlier that day. The pavilions and such had been struck, folded up and taken away. There was a forlorn, abandoned feel to the beach. Oddly it made Danny feel more, not less at home.

The sun was setting in the west, slowing descending behind the ridge of mountains. Rays of golden-red light streaked through some high, thin clouds, sending a rosy tint down on all things. Sunlight reflected off the lake in a long, arrow-straight line from near the shore to the distant edge in a blinding yellow blaze, looking for all the world like a yellow brick road. A road Danny would well have loved to have trod upon, if only to get out of his current situation.

Finally it had gotten dark, so Danny got up, put on his shoes and went back to the amphitheater. The field was crowded with kids. The fire in the pit had burned down to a nice bed of embers, though a few new logs had just been thrown on it. The portable stage was all set up and most of the stable hands sent home. A few remained at a distance, standing beside one of the trucks which had firefighting equipment on it.

Danny found a spot at the back of the rows of logs, at the top of the embankment, and sat down. Moments later Sam appeared at his side. "I'm surprised you're not down there basking in the adulation of the teeming hordes."

"Huh?"

She pointed down to the front of the rows of logs where Tucker and T'Keisha were surrounded by the teammates. "Everyone's impressed with how well they did in the three-legged race."

"I should have listened to the other Sam?" Danny said recalling how he had tripped up the real Sam during their race, causing them to fall down and lose valuable time.

"We still won our heat." Sam said, trying to cheer Danny up. "And you didn't use any ghost powers to do so."

"Don't remind me."

"What? Danny, you didn't. When?"

"The relay. Abigail released the baton before I had a good grip on it. I could feel it sliding out of my hand, and I was so tired of Dash yelling at everybody...so I levitated it a bit to get a better grip on it."

"You cheated"

"I feel awful about it."

"As well you should!" Sam proclaimed. She grabbed Danny's face, turned it this way and that. "You don't look any more evil than normal but Danny, this is how it starts. Cheating on little things leads to cheating on bigger things. I won't let you become Dark Dan."

"I won't become Dark Dan. I gave you my word on it."

"It's a slippy slope, Danny, a slippy slope!"

"Sam, I turned into Dark Dan because I cheated on the C.A.T.s. That was something big. This isn't. Besides, I told you I feel bad having done it. What made me Dark Dan was that I didn't feel bad when I did bad things. I'm not going to change!"

The Goth girl gave him a long, intense stare. After a time she said, "Good. Don't. I like you the way you are."

As always comments like that made Danny uncomfortable. Was she speaking as a friend or should he read something deeper in it? He looked away, casting his eyes over the assembled camp. "I wonder when the Head Ranger is coming down to get this thing started?" he asked.

"She's already here," Sam pointed to a cluster of people near the green pennant. "She's down there congratulating people."

"I've never so wanted a night to be over," Danny said quietly.

"Me, too. I hate the idea of camp being over tomorrow and having to go back to the parental units, but this, I could do without."

"Oh. I brought this for you," Danny said, handing Sam a Fenton Thermos. "I gave Tucker the Fenton Yo-yo; I figured you could use this." The thermos was about eight inches long and three inches wide, made of brushed aluminum. It looked like any other thermos except for a small control panel along one side and that it was packed with electronic gear to suck in and contain a ghost.

"Sure, but, ah, do you think the Camp Ghost will stay in it?"

"Oh, Yeah. Clockwork has Dark Dan in one of these and he's never been able to get out. If the thermos can hold Dark Dan, it can hold anything."

A squeal from loudspeakers set in the portable stage drowned out further conversation. The Head Ranger was standing on the stage, fiddling with the microphone she was holding. "You think after all this years we're learn how to set this thing up," she said once the adjustments were made. "Good evenings Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Camp Sleepy Hollow All-Camp celebration. We've had a glorious week. I hope you've had a great time here at Camp Sleepy Hollow. I hope you will think about coming back again next year."

The Head Ranger went on in a similar strain for a while. Danny quickly grew bored. From where he was sitting Danny could still see a bit of the lake. In the twilight the band of light from the moon shone even more brightly across the water, looking less like a road now than a lane of fire, rippling, shimmering on the small waves on the lake. It danced about almost like a thing alive. In the distance there was a small spot where the moon itself was reflected on the water, looking like a twisting, swirling ball of fire. He watched the play of light on water for a while as the Head Ranger droned on.

Hearing the name Dash Baxter, Danny looked up and saw that the Head Ranger had called all the counselors onto the stage and was individually introducing them. As she spoke Danny could clearly see them all standing in the bright moon light.

But that couldn't be. The moon was hovering over the western edge of the lake, wasn't it?

Danny thought long and carefully. Because of his dream of being an Astronaut Danny had read lots of books on astronomy. He called up an image of the Earth, Sun and Moon in his mind. A full moon was when the moon was directly behind the Earth and the light from the sun bounced back to Earth. That meant that when Point A on the Earth rotated behind the rim of the Earth, causing the Sun to appear to be setting in the West, the moon would appear to be rising -- in the east!

Danny twisted in his seat. Behind him on the eastern horizon was the Moon, looking orange and bloated and low to the ground. Danny could make out the familiar features that resembled the face of a man. But if the Moon was shining in the East, what was shining across the water in the West? Looking at the lake again he could see that the swirling ball of fire was larger, nearer.

"Sam," he said, "here it comes,"

His words were drowned out by a shout from the rows of logs as the Head Ranger announced the winner of the Camp Games. Everyone leap to their feet, applauding. The kids on Team Green started moving down the rows of logs towards the stage. Sam leaned towards him and hollered, "What?"

"There!" Danny pointed. "I've got to go ghost. Warn the others!"

Danny rolled backwards over the log he was sitting and tumbled out the steep hillside in the back. He changed to Danny Phantom before he was half-way down and rocketed to met the ghost of the camper Ben Green before it got close to shore.

As Danny swooped close to the approaching ghost he could see that it was coalescing from an indistinct fireball into a glowing twenty foot headless man walking on top the lake's water. Two flaring pits of glowing fire floated above its shoulders where it's eyes would be -- if it had a head.

Danny floated in front of it and shouted, "Stop! I won't let you harm anybody at this camp!"

The ghost of Ben Green simply kept walking forward, forcing Danny to retreat.

"So much for diplomacy," Danny muttered, gathering up energy for an ecto-blast. The spectral bolt struck the ghost dead center on its chest. Green goo dripped down its waist. While Danny could see that the ghost had hesitated under the impact it was only temporary. After only the slightest hesitation the ghost continued approaching the campfire where hundreds of unsuspecting kids were enjoying their last night of camp.

Danny fired off several more bolts of ectoplasm and while the ghost seemed to stagger after each one, it continued its slow march over the lake. Danny swirled off, flying out and around before coming in at high speed to slam into the ghost. The impact was jarring. The ghost definitely lost its footing for a moment. Danny was equally dazed from the collision. He shook his head to clear it and saw the ghost turning towards him. "Yes!" Danny thought jubilantly. "I've got the ghost's attention!" but before he could see it coming, the ghost had swept a long arm through the air, batting Danny deep into the water.

Danny awoke from his concussion with a cough, spitting out water. He turned intangible for moment and shook off the water, then streaked through the air, catching up with the ghost as it reached the shore.

It was moving fast now.

Flashes of light showed that Abigail was firing her lipstick-blaster at it. But the distance was too great, she was missing as often as not. "Save your shots until its close enough to have an effect!" Danny groused to himself. He swung to one side to stay of out of Girl in White action while showering on the ghost a continuous stream of ecto-blasts. A Snap! Bang! indicated that Tucker had moved in and was wielding the Fenton Yo-Yo. Vaguely Danny could see that the crowd of kids was only slowly becoming aware of the ghost in their midst. People were standing around, frozen in their tracks. "Run!" Danny yelled. "Get away from here!" but it was doubtful anyone could hear him over the growing screams of frightened campers.

Where the ghost was going, what it was attacking had been impossible for Danny to figure out. Suddenly, like rolling thunder a sound burst into the air "B-u-u-u-u-l-l-l-l-i-e-e"

"How can it talk when it doesn't have a mouth?" Danny wondered then a cold chill ran down his back. He knew who the ghost was going after, who had riled the late Ben Green into a murderous rage.

Danny swooped towards the reviewing stand where the Head Ranger had been greeting the counselors from the Green Team. She still clutched the trophy she was about to present to them. Standing at the front of the group of counselors was tall, blond, football star Dash Baxter. A bully at camp, a bully at school. Surely a bully for life. Ben Green had been bullied into committing suicide. And now would not be stopped in getting even with those who had caused his death.

Dash was a creep but Danny couldn't leave him to the Ghost. He streaked towards the reviewing stand, arms outstretched to push Dash off the stage before the Ghost could reach it.

But as he swept over the top of the platform everything turned topsy-turvy. The Ghost had reached down and thrown the stage into the air. Danny tried to orient himself, find the heavy platform and grab it before it crashed down on anyone. He found it, put his shoulder into it but was driven deep into the ground. Danny went intangible and flew through the wreckage of the platform to find the ghost hesitating. Abigail and Tucker were attacking it but it seemed to be scanning the stands for something. At least it's shoulders moved back and forth. Suddenly it floated towards the top of the small amphitheater and grabbed something there. "Soulmate" seemed to rumble through the air and then the ghost was gone, moving with a speed Danny could barely track.. He looked to where the ghost had grabbed someone. It was where he remembered leaving Sam.

He flew up to the top row of the amphitheater and looked around, unable to believe what he had seen. She wasn't on the ground by the log seat. She wasn't anywhere on the back slope behind the amphitheater. Sam was nowhere to be seen.

The ghost had kidnaped Sam!

Then Danny gasped. There was something shiny a row down. He swopped down and picked up a battered metal cylinder. The cover of the control panel fell off as he lifted up. It was the Fenton Thermos. Trampled when the campers scattered. He hit the 'open' button but nothing happened.

Danny threw it down in disgust.

Tucker ran up to him. "What's going on?" he asked.

"The ghost kidnaped Sam." Danny said as if disbelieving it himself. "And the thermos is kaput."

"Sam! Where did he go?"

"Probably to that old abandoned cabin we found. I'll fly up there, get up there as fast as you can."

"I'll borrow the Head Ranger's Jeep."

"Tucker, you don't know how to drive!"

"Come on, I mastered Simpson's Road Rage in under a week. How hard can driving a car be?"

"Whatever. Look, Dash is under that pile of rubbish. We've got to get him out."

"Why?"

But Danny Phantom had already run over and grabbed a corner and strained to raise it. A moment later Sid and the other Sam were there helping him. They were helping a white hair, green eyed ghost in a black jumpsuit, not Danny Fenton. They did it because it was the right thing to do.

After a minute of struggling they flipped it over. Dash, the Head Ranger and a couple of the Games judges were laying under it. "See to them," Danny shouted then rocketed west towards the mountains and the cabin where Ben Green had laid anchored to this world for fifty years after his death.

As Danny neared the ridge where the cabin lay he had to slow down and look for landmarks. Since he hadn't seen the cabin from the air before he was forced to find the hiking trail that lead up to the camping area and from there the trail that lead to the abandoned cabin group. As he burst through the last of the trees into the clearing he saw the ghost waiting for him, Sam clutched and struggling on one gigantic hand.

"Leave me alone!" The headless ghost roared.

"Let my friend go!" Danny answered.

"Never! She understands me!"

"No I don't!" Sam hollered back. "I don't understand a thing about you."

"You see the darkness!"

"It's just a pose." Sam shouted.

Danny tried to think of some way to get Sam away from the ghost. It was clear that only his Ghostly Wail had the power to damage the ghost but he couldn't use it while it still held on to Sam. Or even while she was anywhere close to the camp ghost. The Ghostly Wail was a concentrated, focused blast of energy but the blowback could be deadly to anyone without an ectoplasm infrastructure. And with the ghost weakened Sam could suck it into the thermo...if she still had a thermos?

Danny charged head on at the ghost, dodging past a swinging hand and grabbing at Sam. He caught hold of a hand but just as quickly had it jerked away from him as the ghost turned its solidified body away. Danny spun around and flew back firing energy bolts at the ghost. He aimed one carefully at the hand holding Sam. The skin bubbled for a moment before the ghost jerked it away. But for a moment it had loosened its hold on Sam. The black haired girl had doubled up and planted one of her Doc Marten boots against the fingers of the ghost's hand and was pushing with all her might. Danny returned, buzzed in close to the empty space where the ghosts head would be. It swatted at him impatiently and in the moment Sam slipped out of its other hand and fell to the ground. She started to sprint away then stopped and turned, looking around at the abandoned camp site thoughtfully.

"Sam! Run! Go! I'll take care of the ghost." Danny shouted.

"It's here," she called back. "It's got to be here."

"What?"

"It's skull. What's holding it to our world. We've got to find and destroy it. It's the only way to defeat the ghost."

"I can handle it," Danny insisted.

"Danny, you're barely annoying it. Just keep it occupied while I think."

With a quick 'be careful' Danny left to battle the ghost. Sam tried to visualize how the cluster of cabins would have looked fifty years ago. The clearing would have been neatly mowed, there would have been a row of four or five cabins. The trees would have been a lot smaller, almost saplings at the time... Where could one had hidden a head in all that and not have it found? It couldn't have been hidden in the hollow of a tree because most of the trees wouldn't had made hollows back them and in any case the police would have look into obvious places like that.

Vaguely Sam saw Danny being hurled across the clearing, smashing into one of the tottering ruins, causing it to collapse upon him. He was up and out of the wreckage in an instant and rocketing back at the ghost.

Sam also ruled out a hole dug just any ol' where. The turned-over dirt would have been obvious to the police. She looked at the one remaining standing cabin, the one where Ben Green had ended his life. Like the cabins down below it was set a couple feet above the ground on stone pillars, with an open crawl space underneath. Perhaps the head had been buried there! She took a step in the direction of the cabin then stopped, realizing the error in her thinking. The police would have looked under there was well. It was too obvious a place. There had to be some place where fresh dirt would be expected or could be covered up in a way that wasn't obvious.

Suddenly she was jerked up into the air. "Rats!" she muttered. The ghost had grabbed her again while she had been deep in thought. She struggled to get out of its hand again but for the moment it was holding on tight. She saw Danny buzzing around the ghost, still firing ecto-blasts at it, but not as frequently as before and the blasts didn't look as intense. Her friend, she realized, was near-exhausted. He couldn't go on much longer like this. And she didn't like the sound of the ghost calling her a 'soulmate.' She didn't intend to by any ghost's puppy. She had to find the missing skull and destroy it. But where could it be? "Think! Think!" she cried, hitting herself on the head in frustration.

Then she noticed it. A patch of ground that was naked of grass, flowers or weeds. A circle seemingly too unholy for life. Oh course! Who would think to look there and the disturbed earth would have been covered up by normal activities before Green's death would have been noticed. All she had to do was get free again...

Danny was slammed into another tree and slowly picked himself up off the ground. He had to pause to catch his breath. He tried to think of something he could do that he hadn't tried already. But he'd already tried hitting the ghost with everything he could think of. And Sam was waving at him to come rescue her. Then he heard the grinding gears of a truck coming up the trail. A moment later the Head Ranger's jeep pulled into view, with the other Sam at the wheel, Tucker with beside him and Abigail, Sid and Aetheria squeezed into the back.

Aetheria hopped out of the Jeep before it had some to a stop. She was holding a baseball bat in one hand and a tennis racket in the other. Danny wondered where she could have found them. She dropped the racket and sprinted towards the towering ghost, swinging the bat like a pro. She clobbered the ghost several times on his ectoplasmic leg before it finally noticed her, and brushed her away like a mosquito. Aetheria fell into a pile of brush but scrambled out after a moment, somewhat bloody from the prickly vegetation. She charged back at the ghost.

Abigail and Tucker were attacking the ghost with their weapons. Abigail was using her lipstick blaster sparingly now, taking time to aim for best advantage. Danny suspected the lipstick was about exhausted and she was trying to make the best use of what she had left. Tucker was circling around the ghost, throwing out the Yo-Yo from time to time. The length of the string made it a bit awkward to use but every time it hit the ghost there would be a smart Crack--Bang! before the Yo-Yo would recoil back to Tucker's waiting hand. The ghost would jump with each impact, then swing at the African-American kid but Tucker was able to keep just out of his reach.

Sid had found an ax in the back of the Jeep and charged at the ghost with that. It struck the ghosts leg with a solid Thwack, but the ghost seemed to ignore it. The other Sam raced over to the recently collapsed cabin and pulled out a length of 2x4 with which he also attacked the ghost.

Suddenly Danny realized that the wind was starting to rise, to whip and swirl around the ghost. The attacks of so many people was causing the ghost to lose its temper, but whether this was a good sign or bad, Danny wasn't sure. Debris picked up by the wind was striking the attackers making it hard to them to keep close and fight the ghost. Danny heard Sam call out to Tucker. "Get me out of here. I know where it is!" Danny swung around to the side away from Sam and pressed a hard attack. The ghost turned on him as he had hoped. There came a Crack-Bang followed by a grunt as Sam felt to the ground. Danny tried to see where she was going but had to dodge the ghost just then. He felt fingers close around his legs and saw that the ghost had grabbed him with its free hand, the hand that had been holding Sam. The ghost flung him away with a force that made Danny all but blackout. He was well over the valley before he could stop his momentum. As he flew back he could see the ghost sweeping Sid, the other Sam and Aetheria away with a mighty brush of its oversized hands. They scattered like bowling pins into the brush surrounding the abandoned clearing.

Abigail had moved close to where Sam, on her knees, was scratching at the ground with a short piece of plank. Tucker was also nearby, using the Fenton Yo-Yo to keep the ghost at bay. Danny slammed into the ghost's waist, trying to pick it up and carry it away from his friends. He was able to force the ghost across the width of the clearing but was unable to pick it off the ground. Whatever was anchoring the ghost to this spot was literally anchoring it.

Tucker ran across the clearing and flung the Yo-Yo in the ghost's face. The Yo-Yo smacked back into his hand. Then he ran off to one side and threw it again. Danny could see that Tucker was trying to keep the ghost penned up on this side of the clearing while Sam continued digging with her make-shift shovel. Danny swung somewhat behind Tucker and launched fireballs from there, keeping the ghost distracted and focused away from the center of the clearing where Sam was digging up the fire pit. Suddenly it seemed so obvious to hide the missing head there, where nightly bonfires would cover up the disturbed soil.

Danny was hanging just out of reach of the ghost, tossing ecto-blasts just often enough to keep it's attention focused on him. Tucker continued using the Fenton Yo-Yo to effect. Between the two of them it looked like the ghost was beginning to tire. Danny, of course, was well past 'tired.' Only fear for the safety of his friends kept him going. A brush of wind against his clothes told him that he had drifted in too close to the ghost. Danny glided back a pace just as Tucker launched the Yo-Yo. It exploded with a massive Zap-Boom! knocking Tucker a dozen feet away.

"Tuck!" Danny screamed and darted towards his friend. He was relieved to find that Tucker was breathing gently, though his face was reddened from the blast and starting to bleed.

He turned back to the ghost, which had started stalking back across the clearing towards Sam and Abigail. The red-head had held off using her lipstick-blaster while the ghost was on the far side of the clearing but now as it moved towards them again, she fired blast after blast at it. The ghost staggered under it impact but continued its relentless approach.

Abruptly the blaster cut out in mid-shot. Abigail pressed the trigger again and again but it had stopped working. She threw it at the approaching ghost and caught up a log lying near-by. She waved it menacing at the ghost but it just muttered a rumble of thunder that sounded like feigh, and a gust of wind swirling all about them caught her up and threw her into the brush.

As Danny knew it would, it all came back to him. He flew in between Sam and the ghost and drove it back with a flurry of ecto-plasm fireballs. Sam, he could see from a quick glance, had dug down several feet. Dirt was piled up around her, sheets of it sieving off the mounds from the roaring wind.

For several minutes Danny held the ghost at bay with a relentless bombardment of ecto-blasts and fireballs. "Hurry up, Sam!" he whispered. "Find that skull! I don't think I can last much longer!"

Sam didn't reply. She probably never heard his whispered words above the roar of the Camp Ghost's cyclone. She continued frantically scrapping in the hole she had made.

"I gotta to do," Danny finally thought. "I don't have any else left." He took a deep breath and reach way down within himself and brought a sound up from the depth of his soul, a yodeling, screaming wail that visibly shattered the air in its passage. Trees behind the ghost exploded into a million minute splinters, then were sweep away by the force of Danny's Ghostly Wail.

The ghost struck, directly by the wail, wavered, faded, decoalesced into a vague ball of fire than seemed on the verge of going out entirely. It was flickering badly as Danny's Wail came to an end and, utterly drained, he converted to Danny Fenton and fell to the ground.

Through eyelids that felt like they weighed a ton Danny watched as the ghost slowly pulled itself back together. He had given his best -- and it was not enough. "Sorry, Sam" he whispered and dropped his head to the ground.

But just as darkness was piling on Danny he heard Sam cry out "Found it!" There was some scuffling in the ground then it seemed like the ghost was screaming "No-o-o-o-o!"

It exploded into a tornado of blasting wind. Danny forced his head off the ground and looked towards the fire pit. Sam, covered in ashes and dirt was climbing out, gripping a small white object Danny knew had to be the skull. The winds from the ghost tried to rip it from her hands but she gripped it too tightly.

Suddenly she gasped and sank to her knees as the ghost bore down on her. St. Elmos Fire crackled over her body. Danny tried to get up, tried to help her but strain as he might his muscles were too weak to move.

"Get out of my head! Get out of my head!" he heard her scream. Suddenly she flopped around to where the ring of small stones had lined the fire pit. She grabbed one and brought it done on the skull. There was a dull shock! Again and again she beat on the skull while the ghost screamed and raged above her. Debris from around the clearing began to rain down on her. But still she beat at the skull.

Danny finally found enough strength to begin crawling to her. "I'm coming, Sam!" he called but the words were more a croak than a shout.

Painfully he pulled himself another foot forward. Then Crack! The skull exploded into powdery white fragments. Sam slumped over, too exhausted to do anything more.

"No-o-o-o-o--o!" The ghost screamed. Behind it a hole opened in the space-time continuum. A gateway into the Ghost Zone. A gateway only Danny could see because of his ghost senses. A tremendous force swelled out of the hole and pulled on the Camp Ghost. Slow but inexorable it pulled the ghost through into the afterlife.

Danny felt the Ghost Zone pulling after him as well. So strong was the force pulling the Camp Ghost through that it was carrying everything near it as well.

Danny finally reached Sam and grabbed her hand. He dug into the ground with the other. He had hoped that Sam, being a mortal, would be unaffected by the hole into the Ghost Zone but he could feel her body shifting, slithering towards the opening. Danny forced his fingers deeper into the ground and pulled Sam back towards him. Just as he thought his arm would be pulled from its socket the portal closed. Abruptly the winds stopped howling, the pull on his arms stopped, the roaring cry of the ghost stopped. The silence was deafening.

Danny crawled over to Sam and picked her up. She looked at him dazedly for an instant, murmured something that sounded like "I don't want to die." and passed out. Danny shouted her name a couple times, panicking because he feared she had died, but finally noticed that she was still breathing.

"I got to get her to a hospital," he thought, then realized he didn't know where one was. He tried to stand up but didn't have the strength to get off his knees. He knew he didn't have the strength to go ghost whether, even if he did know where a hospital was. But he had to do something for Sam. He had to.

In the distance he heard the roar of an engine. A truck was coming up the trail. The Head Ranger had followed the others to this abandoned campsite. Tears of joy were running down his face as truck doors slammed open...


	15. There's Got To Be a Morning After It ju

Sam awoke to the pinging of a blood-pulse monitor. This seemed like a good thing since it implied that she wasn't dead. For a time, Sam had not been sure whether she was alive or dead or whether she wanted to be a alive or dead. She was pretty sure she was Sam Manson but the life of Ben Green still swirled in her mind like the taste of soured milk.

She opened her eyes a little and groaned. Though the light was dim it was that harsh blue shade of fluorescence that seems to sting no matter. She saw walls of pale, pastel green, a TV mounted on a high, swivel wall bracket and nothing else. She must be in a hospital.

Sam briefly wondered how she got here. The last thing she recalled was the sound of Danny's voice calling her name fading away like water running down a bathtub drain. Or had that been her consciousness.

Her eyelids slide down with an inexorable deliberation. By the time she had forced them open again Danny was standing over her. He looked concerned. He didn't look like he had just been thrashed within an inch of his life by a murderous ghost. It was ironic that Danny took the worst of it in ghostly battles but it was his friends who ended up in the hospital.

Sam tried to sit up and discovered that seemingly every bone, muscle and fiber in her body ached. She lay back with a groan.

"How're ya feeling?" Danny asked.

"Guess."

"Oh, sorry."

Danny looked at his friend and tried not to let the pain show in his face. She was wrapped up almost like a mummy. "Lacerations and Contusions" according to her chart. Danny understood that to mean cuts and bruises.

"What time is it?" Sam asked.

"Almost midnight."

"The same day?"

"Huh? Yeah. You've been here about four hours."

"Oh." That didn't seem so bad. There was something disturbing to sleeping around the clock, the fear, perhaps, of having missed something. "So how did you get in here?" She asked.

"Walked through the wall."

"Figures. Surprised they haven't kicked you out." She spoke in a whisper. It hurt too much to breathe any deeper to speak louder.

"There's a nurse, comes in every hour to check on you. She asked who I was. When I said I was a friend she said 'fine,' but if a doctor comes in and tells me to leave, I have to."

"I'm glad you're here." Sam whispered. "What did I miss after I passed out?"

"Not much. Once you broke the skull a hole into the Ghost Zone opened up, sucking the ghost into it. The pull was so strong it nearly got me, and surprisingly, it nearly got you."

"Yeah?" Sam said. "I guess the Ghost -- Ben Green, wasn't ready to let go."

"Then you said something weird -- "I don't want to die," and passed out. That scared me because I didn't know if you had died. I was going to fly you to the nearest hospital, only I didn't know where that would be, or had the strength to go ghost. And then -- just as well -- I heard trucks climbing up the path and knew the Head Ranger was here. She picked us all up and took us straight there. As soon as the Doctor discharged me and I came straight here to your room."

"Thanks. What about the others?"

"T'Keisha's fine. Tucker left her at the amphitheater. Tuck's got some burns and bruises. The Fenton Yo-yo finally exploded in his face. I should tell Dad about that... Anyway T'Keisha found her way to the hospital and is bedsitting Tucker."

"You've got to give the Yo-yo back to Abigail so she can return it to her father."

"There's nothing left of it to return! And when did you become all concerned about Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde?"

"I don''t care about her. She was pretty rotten to me all week, Danny. But she didn't really mean to make your week miserable. So why burn her over the Yo-yo?"

"Alright, if it's important to you, I'll return it -- if I had something to return. The explosion tore it to shreds. There's nothing there. Tucker was lucky he didn't get worse than burns."

"Well, think of something. What about Aetheria, Sid and the other Sam?"

"Aetheria seems to have lost an earring or two, I think from being thrown into the brush. She's got a big bandage over her ear. It makes her look a little like Vincent Van Gogh!" Danny paused. "I think she enjoyed that?"

"Yeah, probably. Nothing like a random injury to improve one's Punk look. What about the others?"

"Sid's got a sprained shoulder and a lot of bruises. The other Sam has some fractured ribs and maybe a concussion. You got the worst of it."

"I'd ask for a mirror but I'm afraid of what I'd see in it."

"You've got scrapes, cuts, and bruises over half your body, according to the report, and there was concern about your failure to recover consciousness for such a long time. Your clothes are over there," Danny pointed to a table pushed next to the wall. "They didn't survive too well. Are you feeling any better?"

"I feel like I was run over by a bus and dragged for half a mile. Maybe two buses."

"Want me to call the nurse?"

"She'll want to put me on morphine now that I'm awake. I'm not ready to go back to sleep. So -- the gang came out of this alive. I suppose little Miss Girl in White came out of this without a scratch?"

"Fractured ribs, a large burn along her right arm and side where the Ghost hit her. Cuts and abrasions. The only one who came out of this without a scratch is me." Danny dropped his head, shaking it as if to say this was all wrong.

"Danny, you took more punishment from that Ghost then the rest of us combined. You saved all our lives!"

"No, you did, Sam, when you discovered where the skull was, and destroyed it. I would have just kept hitting it with ecto-blasts that didn't have any effect on it."

"But if you hadn't kept fighting the ghost I would never have been able to dig the skull up. The instant the ghost realized I had it's skull, it went berserk and only your efforts kept it off me long enough to find a rock and smash it."

"But..."

"No buts, Danny. I'm too tired to argue. You saved my life. You saved the lives of everyone at camp."

"I wasn't there in time for Dash."

"He's not...dead, is he?"

"What? No, no. But he's pretty messed up -- arm broken in two places, broken leg, several cracked ribs, a possible concussion. The last I heard he's in surgery getting his arm wired together."

"So much for his football career."

"Surprisingly, the doctor I talked to said he's likely to make a full recovery. Won't be able to play this fall, but maybe next year. But the thing is, Sam, I should have been there, protecting him. I'm the hero, that's what I'm supposed to do!"

"But you were there, Danny. You were fighting the ghost all the way. The ghost dropped a reviewing stand on top of Dash. Of course that's going to cause damage. But you stopped him from killing Dash and that I know was what it intended to do. Those last few minutes when I was trying to smash the skull, it was like I was inside it's mind..." Sam shuddered, then groaned from the pain. "I never want to be in that place again!" she sighed.

Danny was going to say something but noticed that Sam was breathing rapidly. "Are you alright?" he asked. "Should I get the nurse?"

Sam didn't answer for a moment then changed the subject. "When did your parents get here?"

"About a half hour after the Ranger called. Dad crashed the Specter Speeder in the parking lot. Literally. Crashed. into the parking lot."

"Where are they now?"

"Dad's are running around the camp looking for residual ghost auras. It's like the Father's Day present I never gave him. Mom's with him, of course. Jazz is out in the hall with the mobile command communicator running interference for me. Unless she finished writing out a questionnaire about people's ghost experiences, in that case she could be anywhere, interviewing people. She gave me a Bug so I can keep up with developments" Danny pointed towards his ear. Sam tried to look but was too sore to move. Still she knew what he referred to. It was a small wireless headset that hooked over one ear. It looked like a cellphone thingy but was tuned to a different, private frequency the Fentons used.

"She was a big help for us. Be sure to thank her when you can."

"Like she'll forget the $200 she says I owe her..."

"Danny, don't be petty."

"Two hundred bucks is a lot of money. Maybe we should send Abigail the bill?"

"Oo. Wicked. How long did it take for the Guys in White to show up?" Sam asked.

"They flew in a half hour ago. I guess it takes a lot of time filling in paperwork to make an emergency run, even when one's daughter is in danger. I've been trying to avoid them."

"I wonder what Abigail had to say to her Dad?" Sam mused.

"Somehow I think she has experience in talking herself out of trouble." Danny answered.

"Yeah."

The two kids were quiet for a while. Sam had many troubled thoughts on her mind, while Danny was fighting off sheer exhaustion.

"I always thought I was a troubled kid," Sam began. "I had morbid thought, couldn't see the cheerful in stuff. My parents were kind of creepy with their cheerfulness. I hate them for always wanting to change me..."

"Really?" Danny interrupted, "because everybody always says you're the level-headed one of my friends. I thought I was the messed up one."

"Danny, this isn't a competition. Considering who your parents are -- considering who you are -- you cope better than you realize. I apparently have been coping better than I realized. Because this Ben Green, guy... he had problems."

Sam stopped, not sure how to go on.

"When I was touching that skull it was like I was Ben Green..."

"You mentioned that."

"But it was weird. I knew who I was but every detail of his life was there for me to see, almost as if it were my memory instead of his. I could remember wetting myself in first grade when another kid threatened to beat me up. I remember how my -- I mean, his parents would yell at him for not standing up for himself. I remember-- It's like it's still there. I want it out of my head. I mean I'm sure it will go away soon enough..."

"...But that's not soon enough," Danny finished her sentence.

"Exactly."

Sam asked for some water and Danny ducked out into the hall to find a cup and the ice machine. He came back followed by the nurse. The nurse was short, heavy set with a coppery colored hair unlike any shade found in nature. She smiled in an easy manner as she took Sam's temperature, felt her pulse, shined a light in her eyes and ran her ballpoint along the soles of Sam's feet. She wrote things down on a clipboard then asked if Sam was feeling any unusual symptoms. Sam said 'No.'

"I'll alert the Doctor," she said. "We've got so many cases it might be a while before he can show up. He didn't leave any order about pain medication so I'm afraid I can't give you anything. But I'm mention that when I tell him you're awake. Try to sleep."

"Sorry," Danny apologized. "I couldn't find the ice machine so I had to ask her."

"It's all right," Sammy murmured. "It tastes like bleach but I am so thirsty." She drunk about half the cup, then sucked up a couple bits of ice which she chewed.

"Danny, about Ben Green -- he was gay."

"Uh?"

"I think he was always being picked on because people could sense that he was gay."

"That doesn't make any sense," Danny protested.

"This was fifty years ago, people were a lot different them. They didn't like Blacks, or Jews, or Communists, and certainly not homosexuals." Sam rested for a moment. "Nana (Sam's grandmother) often talks about the Holocaust, even though she was born in America and was only five or six when World War Two ended. You wouldn't think it would mean that much to her. She hadn't lost anyone to it, but-- I guess its because it happened to people just because they were Jewish," Sam continued. "You know, Nana can't forgive the Germans to this day for what they did to our people."

"Does it bother you being Jewish?" Danny asked. It always came as a shock when he was reminded that Sam was Jewish. It was hard for him to think of anyone as a This or a That.

"No. Only that someone would care whether I am. But that's not what I talking about. That boy, Ben Green, who killed himself...when I touched his skull I got all these images and memories and stuff. He was constantly thinking about a counselor at camp, a big, blond boy, very muscular... I think he was in love with him or had a huge crush or something."

"Sounds like Dash. That's kind of creepy. Maybe that's why it attacked Dash?"

"No, well, kind of. I mean, Dash was a jerk all week long, and maybe even during the weeks before we got here. And the Ghost hated bullies so it would have attached Dash for being Dash, not because he resembled some long ago other guy. But it didn't help that Dash looked like this other guy, it was like...what... icing on a cake?"

"Insult to injury?"

"Yeah, that's it. Insult to injury. But the key thing is that I think the Ghost came out to that counselor, and got beat up as a result."

"I'd freak out, too, if some guy came on to me," Danny admitted.

"Would you beat them up?"

"No."

"See, that's how you're different from that counselor. And that's what crushed the boy's spirit and lead him to hang himself."

"Over that? I can't see it."

"You never will, Danny, you don't have that kind of darkness in you." Sam looked away as she spoke. Danny wondered if she was speaking in part about herself.

"But for him it was devastating. The next day it seemed like all the counselors knew and they all were making fun of him. He knew it would get back to his school and then to his parents eventually. The pain was ... unbearable." Sam was speaking slowly as if overwhelmed by the memories of the Ghost.

"He couldn't face that happening so while everyone was waiting for dinner he...hung...himself. -- God, I can't stop thinking about the feel of the rope around his neck and the pain, all that pain as he died."

Tears were running down Sam's face. Her hands had balled up into fists, twisting a bit of blanket into a knot. Danny reached over and put his hand on hers. She let go of the blanket and gripped his hand in a painful grip.

"I can't get it out of my mind -- his last thought -- before -- his last thought was 'I don't want to die,' and then he did!"

"That's what you said." Danny murmured. "Just before you passed out you said, 'I don't want to die.' I guess you were just repeating what the ghost was thinking."

"I said that?" Sam choked out.

"Yeah."

"That wasn't the Ghost. That was me. I –" But what she was going to say next died in her throat.

Danny handed her a tissue, with which she daubed at her eyes. She had not taken her other hand from Danny's.

There was an awkward silence for a long while. Finally Danny stirred. "I suppose I'd better go find my parents and face the music." He got up and headed towards the door. "Do you want me to turn off the light?" he asked.

"No! leave it on."

"Sure."

Sam hesitated for a moment, then said: "Danny, could I ask you a favor, a big favor, no questions asked?"

"Sure, anything," he answered, curious that she even had to ask.

"Could you stay here, with me, for the rest of the night?"

"Well I ought to ... Sure, I'll stay."

He sat back down and took her hand in his.

Sam settled down in her hospital bed and closed her eyes. Her mind was a blaze of swirling, confused emotions, the emotions of a boy who refused to die. But to one side was the solid comforting pressure of Danny's hand. As she concentrated on the concrete physicality of Danny's presence, the ghost seemed to fade, to quiet.

"You know," she said after a bit, "when that ghost pulled me out of the amphitheater, it wasn't by accident. It called me 'friend.' It thought I was someone who could understand it. Understand it's pain. And, god help me, I could. I know the feeling of rejection or feeling unworthy all the time. I've looked into the abyss. I've looked into it so much that it was starting to look back at me. It scared me. It scared me so much that I can't bear being in the dark or being alone. I'm afraid to be left by myself. Ben Green looked into the abyss and fell in. I'm afraid he'll pull in with him. I–"

A snore blew loudly from Danny. Sam twisted gingerly to look at her friend. He'd fallen asleep in the chair, mouth open a small thread of drool gathering at the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, I guess I was boring you with my problems. But you're here for me and that's all that counts."


End file.
